I am both a Mechanical and an Electrical engineer ( aka use math in real life every day) and I work every day with systems described by exponential or logarithmic functions Just to name a few: Charging or discharging of a capacitor Any LRC circuit (or any combination thereof) Any SMD system (or any combination thereof) radioactive decay algorithmic efficiency In other words, if you want to describe a real life you will probably encounter some exponential function. This comes from the fact that the solution to differential equations ( which govern most of the universe) generally contain an exponential term.
I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.