When it comes to graphing exponential functions, I like to follow a very consistent plan: 1) Plug in x=100 and x=-100 to see what the function is doing as x starts getting close to -infinity or +infinity. 2) One of these will result in an infinite value, the other will give a real-number value. The real-number value is the horizontal asymptote of the exponential function. 3) Plug in a few easy-to-calculate points, like x=-1, 0, and 1 in order to get a couple of points that we can plot. 4) Connect the points with an exponential curve, following the horizontal asymptote.
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