Anecdotes and problems in the first two sections illustrate the unexpectedly rapid growth of geometric progressions. In the next section, the other end of the telescope is looked through by considering decreasing geometric progressions and the idea of half life. In Section 4, the question is raised whether or not the number of people is growing exponentially. Section 5 deals with exponential growth as it applies to money. Logarithms are introduced in the sixth section to provide a tool for handling computations with exponential expressions.

6.1 The power of powers

6.2 Doubling time

6.3 Half-life

6.4 Explosions

6.5 Rates of interest

6.6 Logarithms