General Mathematics Manila Science High School

Chapter 1, Lesson 1 September 14, 2021

Lesson 1 (Preliminary)
Functions and Their Graphs

Highlight Questions

1. What is a function? Define based on your own understanding.

Functions are one of the foundational blocks in Computer Science and machine programming.
Functions help understand the economic state of a company, whether if it’s a personal business or an
international franchise. When it comes to population dynamics and human population growth,
functions are frequently used (The phrase “exponential growth” is usually linked to this one).
Common scenarios, such as medication dose or the tally of COVID-19 cases, can be represented
using functions. If anything that Mathematics has greatly contributed to the development of
mankind, one of them would be functions.

In my own words, the mathematical definition of a function is a set of relations that associates every
input to its one and only one output. When the topic of functions is introduced to students like us,
it also comes with the concept of relations. A relation, in simple terms, is a set or list of ordered
pairs. These ordered pairs are usually in the form of (x , y ). Further discussion about functions and
relations will answer the second question…

2. Represent functions through or using mapping (diagram).

It is clear that all functions are relations, but NOT ALL relations are functions. There exist relations
wherein an element from the input corresponds to multiple elements from the output, which defies
the definition of a function. To understand this, mapping diagrams are commonly used to distinguish
which relations are functions and which are not.

Domain Range

1 10
6 14
3 26
7 17
Mapping Diagram

Above is an example of a mapping diagram. Each element of the input — in the figure is called
domain, the set of x -values — corresponds to a value from the output. This diagram is considered a
function because there are no values from the domain that correspond to two or more values from
the range.
General Mathematics Manila Science High School
Chapter 1, Lesson 1 September 14, 2021

Below are four common classifications of relations and descriptions of each if the relation is a
function or not a function.

Input Output Input Output Input Output Input Output

a 1 1 a a 1
a
b 2 2 b 1 b 2
b
c 3 3 c 2 c 3
c
d 4 4 d d 4
One-to-one Relation One-to-many Relation Many-to-one Relation Many-to-many Relation
A FUNCTION NOT A FUNCTION A FUNCTION NOT A FUNCTION
Based on the diagram, There are elements Many elements from Above is a many-to-
there is a unique from the input that the output are mapped many relation, where
output for each input. correspond to multiple to the same element multiple elements from
This relation is called elements from the from the input. This is the input correspond
one-to-one relation output. This is called many-to-one relation to multiple elements
and is considered a one-to-many relation and is still considered from the output. Since
function. and is not a function a function. some elements from
because having the input can produce
multiple outputs from multiple elements from
a single input will the output, this
violate the definition relation is not a
of a function. function.

x
3. Consider the graph of f ( x )=1 and f ( x )= . Are they equal functions? Why?
x

x
Despite the fact that can be simplified as 1, the two functions are still NOT equal. To understand
x
why, the graphs of the said functions are illustrated and displayed below:

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Graph of f ( x )=1 x
Graph of f ( x )=
x
General Mathematics Manila Science High School
Chapter 1, Lesson 1 September 14, 2021

x
Just from a first look, it can be pointed out that the difference between the two is a hole at f ( x )=
x
at x=0 .

When working with rational functions, there are values that are restricted from either its domain or
its range, or even both. We call these values as restricted values. When x is equal to the restricted
value, the graph may have a hole or an asymptote. In this case, there is a hole at x=0 .

For additional information, we can differentiate if the graph has a hole or an asymptote when x is at
restricted values. When evaluating the function at x equal to a restricted value, there are two
possible outcomes: one is that only the denominator will evaluate to 0 , and the other one is that
0
both the numerator and the denominator will evaluate to 0 (by ). Back to the graph, setting x=0
0
0
will evaluate f ( 0 )= , so the function f has a hole located at x=0 .
0

Since there is a restriction at the second function, we can also say that the difference between the
two functions is their domain. The domain of f ( x )=1 is the set of real numbers R , while the domain
x
of f ( x )= is the set of real numbers except for 0 { R , x ≠ 0}.
x

Answering the question, the two functions are NOT equal.