Week 12 – Math 11

This week in math 11 we learned about absolute value functions. When graphing these functions its important to remember that these equations have absolute value bars in them so the graphs will stay in the positive side of the graph (Quadrant 1,2).

For these equations the Vertex now becomes the critical point of the graph and this will come into play later on. When given the equation you notice that there is a negative inside the absolute value bars and usually the numbers are always positive, when you graph this you will first want to graph it as you usually would which would look like a positive angled line crossing through the x axis at -1 and the y axis at 3 keeping the slope at 3. This is where your critical point comes into play.

Like I said before your graph when there is absolute value bars must be in the positive, except for a few scenarios, this is where you use your critical point. The critical point is where the line hits the X axis, this is where the graph is now going to change directions. What I mean by that is before the graph would keep going down as usual but because of the absolute value bars the line now is going to switch directions and go back up creating a v.

Your critical point is vert important and is like a vertex. The same process would happen with parabolas, what ever part of the parabola is in the negative section of the graph will be reflected to the positive side. This creates w graphs. From here you can figure out your domain and range annoy other pieces needed.