18 The exponentiat model below represents the balance of a loan, in dollars, \( x \) years from now. What is meaning of 1.07 in the model? \( f(x)=17198(1.07)^{x} \)

The 1.07 in the model represents the growth factor of the loan balance, indicating that the balance increases by 7% each year. This is a characteristic of exponential growth, where the value is multiplied by the growth factor (in this case, 1.07) for every year that passes, leading to a higher balance over time. In practical terms, this means that if you were to evaluate this function after several years, the balance would rapidly increase due to the compounding effect of that 7% growth, reflecting the cost of borrowing money as interest accumulates on the loan.