tfhs.over-blog.com/
27 Mars 2021
Actually, a series of three may or may not be a trilogy — it just depends. It might just be a three-part serial. The word trilogy was originally applied to a set of three completely separate but interrelated Greek plays. Our best surviving example of these is the Oresteia by Aeschylus about the House of Atreus (the Atreides, in one spelling), which comprised three different plays. What would my 14 years old brother do: 3 - 3. 6 + 2 = 0. 6 + 2 = 2 What would a normal person do: 3 - 3. 6 + 2 = 3 - 18 + 2 = -13 or 2 What would a Mathematician or any person who knows BODMAS do: 3 - 3. 6 + 2 = -13 Answer is - 13.
NPR's sites use cookies, similar tracking and storage technologies, and information about the device you use to access our sites (together, 'cookies') to enhance your viewing, listening and user experience, personalize content, personalize messages from NPR's sponsors, provide social media features, and analyze NPR's traffic. This information is shared with social media, sponsorship, analytics, and other vendors or service providers. See details.
You may click on 'Your Choices' below to learn about and use cookie management tools to limit use of cookies when you visit NPR's sites. You can adjust your cookie choices in those tools at any time. If you click 'Agree and Continue' below, you acknowledge that your cookie choices in those tools will be respected and that you otherwise agree to the use of cookies on NPR's sites.
A function relates an input to an output.
It is like a machine that has an input and an output. And the output is related somehow to the input. |
| f(x) | 'f(x) = . ' is the classic way of writing a function. |
We will see many ways to think about functions, but there are always three main parts:
Here are the three parts:
| Input | Relationship | Output |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | × 2 | 0 |
| 1 | × 2 | 2 |
| 7 | × 2 | 14 |
| 10 | × 2 | 20 |
| . | . | . |
For an input of 50, what is the output?
But we are not going to look at specific functions .
. instead we will look at the general idea of a function.
First, it is useful to give a function a name.
The most common name is 'f', but we can have other names like 'g' . or even 'marmalade' if we want.
But let's use 'f':
We say 'f of x equals x squared'
what goes into the function is put inside parentheses () after the name of the function:
So f(x) shows us the function is called 'f', and 'x' goes in
And we usually see what a function does with the input:
f(x) = x2 shows us that function 'f' takes 'x' and squares it.
Example: with f(x) = x2:
In fact we can write f(4) = 16.
Don't get too concerned about 'x', it is just there to show us where the input goes and what happens to it.
It could be anything!
So this function:
f(x) = 1 - x + x2
Is the same function as:
The variable (x, q, A, etc) is just there so we know where to put the values:
f(2) = 1 - 2 + 22 = 3
Sometimes a function has no name, and we see something like:
y = x2
But there is still:
At the top we said that a function was like https://softwaregplus.mystrikingly.com/blog/airserver-android. a machine. But a function doesn't really have belts or cogs or any moving parts - and it doesn't actually destroy what we put into it!
A function relates an input to an output.
Saying 'f(4) = 16' is like saying 4 is somehow related to 16. Or 4 → 16
Example: this tree grows 20 cm every year, so the height of the tree is related to its age using the function h:
h(age) = age × 20
So, if the age is 10 years, the height is:
h(10) = 10 × 20 = 200 cm
Here are some example values:
'Numbers' seems an obvious answer, but .
. which numbers? For example, the tree-height function h(age) = age×20 makes no sense for an age less than zero. |
| . it could also be letters ('A'→'B'), or ID codes ('A6309'→'Pass') or stranger things. |
So we need something more powerful, and that is where sets come in:
A set is a collection of things. Here are some examples:
|
Each individual thing in the set (such as '4' or 'hat') is called a member, or element.
So, a function takes elements of a set, and gives back elements of a set.
But a function has special rules:
This can be said in one definition:
A function relates each element of a set
with exactly one element of another set
(possibly the same set).
1. | '.each element.' means that every element in X is related to some element in Y. We say that the function coversX (relates every element of it). (But some elements of Y might not be related to at all, which is fine.) |
2. | '.exactly one.' means that a function is single valued. It will not give back 2 or more results for the same input. So 'f(2) = 7 or 9' is not right! |
'One-to-many' is not allowed, but 'many-to-one' is allowed: | ||
| (one-to-many) | (many-to-one) | |
| This is NOT OK in a function | But this is OK in a function | |
When a relationship does not follow those two rules then it is not a function . it is still a relationship, just not a function.
Could also be written as a table:
It is a function, because:
So it follows the rules.
(Notice how both 4 and -4 relate to 16, which is allowed.)
It is a relationship, but it is not a function, for these reasons:
(But the fact that '6' in Y has no relationship does not matter)
On a graph, the idea of single valued means that no vertical line ever crosses more than one value.
If it crosses more than once it is still a valid curve, but is not a function.
Some types of functions have stricter rules, to find out more you can read Injective, Surjective and Bijective
My examples have just a few values, but functions usually work on sets with infinitely many elements.
We can't show ALL the values, so here are just a few examples:
| X: x | Y: x3 |
|---|---|
| -2 | -8 |
| -0.1 | -0.001 |
| 0 | 0 |
| 1.1 | 1.331 |
| 3 | 27 |
| and so on. | and so on. |
In our examples above
We have a special page on Domain, Range and Codomain if you want to know more.
Functions have been used in mathematics for a very long time, and lots of different names and ways of writing functions have come about. Great owl slot machine.

Here are some common terms you should get familiar with:
We often call a function 'f(x)' when in fact the function is really 'f'
And here is another way to think about functions:
Write the input and output of a function as an 'ordered pair', such as (4,16).

They are called ordered pairs because the input always comes first, and the output second:
(input, output)
So it looks like this:
( x, f(x) )
How to play casino slot machines. Example:
(4,16) means that the function takes in '4' and gives out '16'
A function can then be defined as a set of ordered pairs:
Example: {(2,4), (3,5), (7,3)} is a function that says
'2 is related to 4', '3 is related to 5' and '7 is related 3'.
Also, notice that:
But the function has to be single valued, so we also say
'if it contains (a, b) and (a, c), then b must equal c'
Which is just a way of saying that an input of 'a' cannot produce two different results.
Example: {(2,4), (2,5), (7,3)} is not a function because {2,4} and {2,5} means that 2 could be related to 4 or 5.
In other words it is not a function because it is not single valued
We can graph them.
. because they are also coordinates!
So a set of coordinates is also a function (if they follow the rules above, that is)
We can create functions that behave differently depending on the input value
Here are some example values:
|
Read more at Piecewise Functions.
Tweetbot for twitter 2 2 download free. One last topic: the terms 'explicit' and 'implicit'.
Explicit is when the function shows us how to go directly from x to y, such as:
That is the classic y = f(x) style that we often work with.
Implicit is when it is not given directly such as:
x2 − 3xy + y3 = 0
When we know x, how do we find y?
It may be hard (or impossible!) to go directly from x to y.
'Implicit' comes from 'implied', in other words shown indirectly.
