The MACD is calculated by simply subtracting a 26-period exponential moving average (EMA) of the closing prices from a 12-period EMA. The signal line is a nine-period exponential moving average of the MACD.
The addition of a logarithmic response to an exponential increase in the cause of something can in fact add up to a straight line, which is very obvious in a suite of the temperature projections made by our friends at the U.N.