12

Chapter 1  Functions and Limits

y Example 2  Sketch the graph and find the domain and range of each function.
(a)  fsxd − 2x 2 1 (b)  tsxd − x 2
Solution
y=2x-1
(a)  The equation of the graph is y − 2x 2 1, and we recognize this as being the equa-
tion of a line with slope 2 and y-intercept 21. (Recall the slope-intercept form of the
0 1 x
2 equation of a line: y − mx 1 b. See Appendix B.) This enables us to sketch a portion
-1
of the graph of f in Figure 7. The expression 2x 2 1 is defined for all real numbers, so
the domain of f is the set of all real numbers, which we denote by R. The graph shows
FIGURE 7 that the range is also R.
(b) Since ts2d − 2 2 − 4 and ts21d − s21d2 − 1, we could plot the points s2, 4d and
y s21, 1d, together with a few other points on the graph, and join them to produce the
(2, 4) graph (Figure 8). The equation of the graph is y − x 2, which represents a parabola (see
Appendix C). The domain of t is R. The range of t consists of all values of tsxd, that is,
y=≈ all numbers of the form x 2. But x 2 > 0 for all numbers x and any positive number y is a
|
square. So the range of t is hy y > 0j − f0, `d. This can also be seen from Figure 8. ■
(_1, 1) 1
f sa 1 hd 2 f sad
0 x
Example 3 If f sxd − 2x 2 2 5x 1 1 and h ± 0, evaluate .
1 h
Solution  We first evaluate f sa 1 hd by replacing x by a 1 h in the expression for f sxd:
FIGURE 8
f sa 1 hd − 2sa 1 hd2 2 5sa 1 hd 1 1

− 2sa 2 1 2ah 1 h 2 d 2 5sa 1 hd 1 1

− 2a 2 1 4ah 1 2h 2 2 5a 2 5h 1 1

Then we substitute into the given expression and simplify:

The expression
f sa 1 hd 2 f sad f sa 1 hd 2 f sad s2a 2 1 4ah 1 2h 2 2 5a 2 5h 1 1d 2 s2a 2 2 5a 1 1d
−
h h h
in Example 3 is called a difference 2a 2 1 4ah 1 2h 2 2 5a 2 5h 1 1 2 2a 2 1 5a 2 1
quotient and occurs frequently in −
h
calculus. As we will see in Chapter
2, it represents the average rate of 4ah 1 2h 2 2 5h
− − 4a 1 2h 2 5
change of f sxd between x − a and h ■
x − a 1 h.

Representations of Functions
There are four possible ways to represent a function:
●  verbally (by a description in words)
●  numerically (by a table of values)
●  visually (by a graph)
●  algebraically   (by an explicit formula)
If a single function can be represented in all four ways, it’s often useful to go from one
representation to another to gain additional insight into the function. (In Example 2, for
instance, we started with algebraic formulas and then obtained the graphs.) But certain
functions are described more naturally by one method than by another. With this in mind,
let’s reexamine the four situations that we considered at the beginning of this section.

Copyright 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.