Look at this table:

x y
1 3
2 9
3 27
4 81
5 243
Write a linear function (y=mx+b) or an exponential function (y=a(b)x) that models the data.
y=

Looking at the table, we can observe that the values of y are increasing at an increasing rate. This suggests that an exponential function would best model the data.

To find the equation of the exponential function, we can examine the pattern between the values of x and y. We notice that for each increase in the value of x by 1, the value of y is multiplied by 3. Therefore, we can determine that the base of the exponential function is 3.

The equation of the exponential function that models the data is: y = 3(3)^x