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Piecewise Function

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8 views

Piecewise Function

Uploaded by

MAISARAH
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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REPRESENTATIONS OF FUNCTIONS

MADAM MAZIAH MAHMUD


Representations of Functions
◦The graph of a function is a curve in the xy-plane. But
the question arises: Which curves in the xy-plane are
graphs of functions? This is answered by the
following test.
Representations of Functions

◦ The reason for the truth of the Vertical Line Test can be seen in Figure
13.
Representations of Functions

◦If each vertical line x = a intersects a curve only


once, at (a, b), then exactly one functional value is
defined by f (a) = b. But if a line x = a intersects the
curve twice, at (a, b) and (a, c), then the curve can’t
represent a function because a function can’t assign
two different values to a.
EXAMPLE

◦For example, the parabola x = y2 – 2 shown in


Figure 14(a) is not the graph of a function of
x because, as you can see, there are vertical
lines that intersect the parabola twice. The
parabola, however, does contain the graphs
of two functions of x.
EXAMPLE
Notice that the equation
x = y2 – 2 implies y2 = x
+ 2, so .
Thus the upper and
lower halves of the
parabola are the
graphs of
the functions
and .
Representations of Functions

We observe that if we reverse the roles of x and y,


then the equation x = h (y) = y2 – 2 does define x
as a function of y (with y as the independent
variable and x as the dependent variable) and the
parabola now appears as the graph of the
function h.
A function f is defined by
1 – x if x –1
x2 if x > –1
Evaluate f (–2), f (–1), and f (0) and
sketch the graph.
Solution
Remember that a function is a rule. For this particular function the
rule is the following:

First look at the value of the input x. If it happens that x  –1,


then the value of f(x) is 1 – x.

On the other hand, if x > –1, then the value of f(x) is x2.

Since –2  –1, we have f(–2) = 1 – (–2) = 3.

Since –1  –1, we have f(–1) = 1 – (–1) = 2.

Since 2 > –1, we have f(0) = 02 = 0.


Solution
How do we draw the graph of f ? We observe that if
x -1, then f (x) = 1 – x, so the part of the graph of f
that lies to the left of the vertical line x = –1 must
coincide with the line y = 1 – x, which has slope –1
and y-intercept 1.
If x > -1, then f (x) = x2, so the part of the graph of f
that lies to the right of the line x = –1 must coincide
with the graph of y = x2, which is a parabola.
Solution
This enables us to sketch the graph.
The solid dot indicates that the point (–1, 2) is
included on the graph; the open dot
indicates that the point (–1, 1) is excluded
from the graph.
Piecewise Defined Functions

◦ The next example of a piecewise defined function is the absolute value


function. Recall that the absolute value of a number a, denoted by |a |, is the
distance from a to 0 on the real number line. Distances are always positive or
0, so we have
◦ |a |  0 for every number a
◦ For example,
◦ |3| = 3 |–3| = 3 | 0| = 0 | –1| = –1
◦ |3 –  | =  – 3
Piecewise Defined Functions

◦In general, we have

◦(Remember that if a is negative, then –a is positive.)


Piecewise Defined Functions

◦In general, we have

◦(Remember that if a is negative, then –a is positive.)


Sketch the
graph of the
EXAMPLE
absolute value
function
f (x) = |x|.

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