FUNCTION NOTATION

This week, we learned about function notations and graphs of functions.

First, let’s take a look at mapping notations, function notations, and equations.

In the form of function notation,  f  is the “name” of the function.

The input / independent variable is x, while the output / dependent variable is f(x).

[ Important note : Make sure not to make any mistakes while dealing with function notations. f(x) is NOT f times x , but rather an expression for “f of x” which means “function of x” ]

Now let’s look at several graphs and try to determine whether it’s a function or not by using the vertical line test.

You can run a vertical line through the graph, checking to see if there is more than one point on the same line. If there is another point on the vertical line, the graph is not a function.

For a relation to be a function, there must be only one output for each input, which in other words, means that there must be only one y value for each x value.

Therefore the last two graphs shown above are not functions.

I will post more information on my blog next week.