y=f(x) is given. Graph, y=f(3x)2 and y=f(x1)?

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2 Answers
Feb 12, 2018

Don't have graph paper handy - so I hope that the description helps!

Explanation:

For y=f(3x)2 first squeeze the given graph along the x axis by a factor of 3 (so that the left hand minimum, say, occurs at x=23 ), and then push the whole graph down by 2 units. Thus the new graph will have a minimum at x=23 with a value of y=2, a maximum at (0,0) and another minimum at (43,4)

For y=f(x1) first shift the graph 1 unit to the right , then flip it upside down! So, the new graph will ave two maxima at (1,0) and (5,2) and a minimum at (1,2)

Feb 13, 2018

Here is a more detailed explanation

Explanation:

The problems are special cases of a more general problem :

Given the graph for y=f(x), what is the graph of y=af(bx+c)+d ?

(the first one is for a=1,b=3,c=0,d=2, while the second one is for a=1,b=1,c=1,d=0 )

I will try to explain the answer in steps, by tackling the problem one step at a time. It will be a pretty long answer - but hopefully the general principle will be clear by the end of it.

For illustration I'll use a particular curve that I am showing below, but the idea will work in general.

enter image source here

(If anyone is interested, the function that is being plotted here is f(x)=exp((x1)22)

1) Given the graph for y=f(x), what is the graph of y=f(x)+d ?

This one is easy - all you have to do is note that if (x,y) is a point on the first graph, then (x,y+d) is a point on the second. This means that the second graph is higher than the first by a distance d (of course, if d is negative, it is lower than the first graph by |d| ).

So, the graph of y=f(x)+1 will be

enter image source here

As you can see, the graph for y=f(x)+1 (the solid purple line) is obtained by simply pushing the graph for y=f(x) (the gray dashed line) up by one unit.

The graph for y=f(x)1 can be found by pushing the original graph down by one unit :

enter image source here

2) Given the graph for y=f(x), what is the graph of y=f(x+c) ?

It is easy to see that if (x,y) is a point on the y=f(x) graph, then (xc,y) will be a point on the y=f(x+c) graph. This means that you can get the graph of y=f(x+c) from the graph of y=f(x) simply by shifting it to the left by c (of course, if c is negative, you must shift the original graph by |c| to the right.
As an example, the graph for y=f(x+1) can be found by pushing the original graph to the left by one unit :

enter image source here

while that for y=f(x1) involves pushing the original graph to the right by one unit :

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3) Given the graph for y=f(x), what is the graph of y=f(bx) ?

Since f(x)=f(b×xb) it follows that if (x,y) is a point on the y=f(x) graph, then (xb,y) is a point on the y=f(bx) graph.

This means that the original graph has to be squeezed by a factor of b along the x axis. Of course, the squeezing by b is really a stretching by 1b for the case where 0<b<1

The graph for y=f(2x) is

enter image source here

Note that the while the height stays the same at 1, the width shrinks by a factor of 2. In particular, the peak of the original curve has shifted from x=1 to x=12.

On the other hand, the graph for y=f(x2) is

enter image source here

Note that this graph is twice as broad (squeezing by 12 being the same as stretching by a factor of 2), and the peak has also moved from x=1 to x=2.

A special mention must be made of the case where b is negative. It is best perhaps to then think of this as a two-step process

  • First find the graph of y=f(x), and then
  • squeeze the resulting graph by |b|

Note that for each point (x,y) of the original graph, the point (x,y) is a point on the graph of y=f(x) - so the new graph can be found by reflecting the old one about the Y axis.

enter image source here

As an illustration of the two step process, consider the graph of y=f(2x) shown below :

enter image source here

Here the original curve, that for y=f(x) is first flipped about the Y axis to get the curve for y=f(x) (the thin cyan line). This is then squeezed by a factor of 2 to get the curve for y=f(2x) - the thick purple curve.

4) Given the graph for y=f(x), what is the graph of y=af(x) ?
The pattern is the same here - if (x,y) is a point on the original curve then (x,ay) is a point on the graph of y=af(x)

This means that for a positive a, the graph gets stretched by a factor of a along the Y axis. Again, a value of a between 0 and 1 means that instead of being stretched, the curve will actually be squeezed by a factor of 1a along the Y axis.

The curve below is for y=2f(x)

enter image source here

Note that the while the peak is at the same value of x - its height has doubled to 2 from 1. Of course it is not the peak only that has been stretched - the y coordinate of every point of the original curve has been doubled to get the new curve.

The figure below illustrates the squeezing that occurs when 0<a<1

enter image source here

Once again, the case for a<0 takes special care - and it is better if you do this in two steps

  1. First flip the curve upside down about the X axis to get the curve for y=f(x)
  2. Stretch the curve by |a| along the Y axis.

The curve for y=f(x) is

enter image source here

while the picture below illustrates the two steps involved in drawing the curve for y=2f(x)

enter image source here

Putting it all together

Now that we have gone through the individual steps, let us put them all together! The procedure for drawing the curve for

y=af(bx+c)+d

starting from that of y=f(x) is essentially composed of the following steps

  1. Plot the curve of y=f(x+c) : shift the graph by a distance c to the left
  2. Then plot that of y=f(bx+c) : squeeze the curve that you get from step 1 in the X direction by the factor |b|, (first flipping it about the Y axis if b<0)
  3. Then plot the graph of y=af(bx+c) : scale the curve that you got from step 2 to by a factor of a in the vertical direction.
  4. Finally push the curve that you obtain in step 3 up by a distance d to get the final result.

Of course you need to carry out all four steps only in extreme cases - often a smaller number of steps will do! Also, the sequence of steps is important.
In case you are wondering, these steps follow from the fact that if (x,y) is a point on the y=f(x) graph, then the point
(xcb,ay+d) is on the y=af(bx+c)+d graph.

Let me illustrate the process by an example with our function f(x). Let us try to construct the graph for y=2f(2x+3)+1

First - the shift to the left by 3 units

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Then : squeeze by a factor of 2 along the X axis

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Then, flipping the graph over about the X axis and then scaling by a factor of 2 along Y

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Finally, shifting the curve up by 1 unit - and we are done!

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