This is an interesting class of functions, but not nearly interesting enough for calculus purposes. While I do spend lots of time pushing the idea of linear approximations on my students ...

such as the differential equations used in engineering to describe dynamic systems. While linear functions are easy enough to define, the term “nonlinear” takes in everything else.

Can you do it by hand? Why yes. Suppose I take the same data from the pylab example and I imagine trying to add a linear function to represent that data. Here are two choices. Well that is just great.

A linear demand curve is a line representing ... shows how the price affects the quantity demanded The Qd = a – b(P) function is useful for calculating the demand as you adjust price.

Investopedia / Michela Buttignol Nonlinear regression is a form of regression analysis in which data is fit to a model and then expressed as a mathematical function. Simple linear regression ...