Eric starts with 10 milligrams of a radioactive substance. The amount of the substance decreases by 12 each week for a number of weeks, w. He writes the expression 10(12)w to find the amount of radioactive substance remaining after w weeks. Andrea starts with 1 milligram of a radioactive substance. The amount of the substance decreases by 20% each week for a number of weeks, w. She writes the expression (1−0.2)w to find the amount of radioactive substance remaining after w weeks. Use the drop-down menus to explain what each part of Eric’s and Andrea’s expressions mean.
