Read exponential growth in agent explanations

An agent explanation says an amount doubles each hour. You remember the first increase and carry that same addition into every later hour. The retelling still describes growth, but its repeated rule has changed.

Here, exponential growth describes a quantity multiplied by the same factor at equal intervals. Read the factor as acting on the amount just reached. With doubling, that amount becomes twice as large each time; the increase itself does not stay fixed.

Every passage below is invented, as is Jane Doe. The pebbles and amounts exist only in the explanation being read. Treat the described activity solely as wording to interpret. File endings are discussed in why text has an .md name.

Find the amount before the first interval

Read this invented explanation:

Jane Doe's passage begins with 3 pebbles. The amount doubles at each hourly interval. After the first hour there are 6 pebbles, after the second there are 12, and after the third there are 24.

The starting amount is 3 pebbles. That amount comes before the first hour has passed. Six marks the first interval's ending; it does not begin the whole progression.

Retain that placement when reading the later amounts. Starting at 6 would omit the initial doubling from 3. Calling 3 the amount after the first hour would shift every later amount into a different interval.

The opening quantity and the first increase happen to share the numeral 3. Their roles differ: one is what the passage begins with; the other is how much the amount changes during its first hour. Keep both roles visible in your own sentence.

Read the factor at equal intervals

Each interval in the passage lasts one hour. The rule applies once during each of those equal intervals. Follow the wording from the starting amount through the three stated hours.

Doubling the initial 3 reaches 6 when the first hour ends. For the second hour, take twice 6, giving 12. For the third hour, take twice 12, giving 24. Each doubling begins with the amount reached immediately before it.

If you start with 3 and add another 3 to the running amount each hour, you get 6, then 9, then 12. That follows a repeated addition of 3. The invented explanation instead repeats a factor of two, acting on a changing amount.

These amounts stay in ordinary quoted prose. Enclosing passages using Markdown fences describes a separate display choice; the repeated relationship comes from the words in the explanation.

Compare how much each interval adds

Look at the changes between neighboring amounts. From 3 to 6, the increase is 3 pebbles. From 6 to 12, the increase is 6 pebbles. From 12 to 24, the increase is 12 pebbles.

The amounts added differ even though the factor and interval stay unchanged. Saying "another 3 each hour" carries only the first increase into the later hours. Saying "twice the preceding amount each hour" retains the rule across all three intervals.

This is the distinction to hold while reading the word growth. That word alone does not tell you whether the passage repeats an addition or a factor. Here, "doubles at each hourly interval" supplies the relationship. Read the specific wording alongside the amounts it connects.

Judging 24 as a good result falls beyond this reading. The task ends with what the passage says about the progression, including the changing increases within it.

Keep the reached amount separate from the increase

A retelling can retain 24 yet give it a different role:

Jane Doe's passage adds 24 pebbles during the third hour.

Return to the amount before that hour: 12. The hour ends with 24, an increase of 12 from its beginning. Calling 24 the increase would add that much to the preceding 12 and describe a different ending.

Say the distinction in a single thought: "During the third hour, the amount rises from 12 to 24 pebbles, an increase of 12." Both the ending amount and the change remain attached to the same interval.

Likewise, the second hour ends with 12 but adds 6. Carrying a reached amount into a sentence about an increase changes the progression even when every numeral came from the passage.

Restate the progression through its stated ending

A retelling of the invented explanation can read:

Beginning with 3 pebbles, the amount doubles each hour. It reaches 6 after one hour, 12 after two hours and 24 after three hours. The hourly increases are 3, then 6, then 12 pebbles.

That account retains the initial quantity, equal intervals, factor and successive increases. It describes only the three hours given in the passage. Leave later hours unwritten.

If your retelling says "3 more each hour," revisit the transition from 6 to 12. If it says "24 added in the third hour," revisit the transition from 12 to 24. Each transition supplies the particular relationship your sentence needs to preserve.

A separate file holding your reading needs a name; Markdown filenames and naming choices discusses that choice. Within that writing, keep the starting quantity alongside the repeated rule so the first increase cannot stand in for every later one.

Where Sashmark fits

Sashmark's desktop v1 remains planned, in development: Markdown is what you would read and edit. Inside this app there is zero AI; agents produce the Markdown elsewhere.