How do you translate a graph up or down?

1 Answer
Sep 22, 2014

You can translate any function, y=f(x) using:

y=f(x-h)+k or
y-k=f(x-h)

If h is positive, the graph will translate to the right.
If h is negative, the graph will translate to the left.
If k is positive, the graph will translate up.
If k is negative, the graph will translate down.

Here is an example:

f(x)=x^2+2x

If we want to translate this up 4 units, then we have:

y=f(x)+4
y=x^2+2x+4
enter image source here

If we have a different example:

f(x)=1/x
y=f(x)+4
y=1/x+4
enter image source here
It still works!