What Is Exponential Growth?
Exponential growth happens when a quantity grows by a constant percentage rate each time period, rather than by a constant amount. Because the growth compounds on an ever-larger base, exponential growth starts slowly but eventually increases far faster than linear (constant-amount) growth. It shows up in compound interest, population growth, and viral spread.
Example
$1,000 growing at 10% per year becomes $1,100 after year 1, $1,210 after year 2, and $1,331 after year 3 — the dollar amount added each year keeps increasing because it's 10% of a growing balance, not a flat $100.