Power Functions Biologists develop and use mathematical models in order to more fully understand observed phenomena and to predict outcomes under different scenarios. Power functions are an important class of functions that have applications in many scientific disciplines.
Power functions arise when one quantity depends on the power of another.
We call x the independent variable and y the dependent variable since y depends on x. In many areas of science, one initially detects relationships between two quantities by examining data that has been collected and then one tries to find a function that models the data. That is, one looks for a function whose inputs agree with the values of the independent variable, and whose outputs match, as closely as possible, the dependent variable. It is important that the function captures the essence of the relationship between the variables, rather than the exact values of the data collected. The problem is finding the values of k and r.