Lec 2
Lec 2
January 22
Review
Definition: Let A and B be sets. A function from A to B is a rule which
assigns to each element a of A a specific element of B, often written f (a).
Notation and terminology:
• We usually denote a function by a small letter, such as f .
• We write f : A → B to mean that f is a function from A to B.
• We write a 7→ b if b = f (a).
• If f : A → B, the set A is called the domain of f and the set B is called the
codomain of f . These two sets should be specified as part of the definition
of the function f .
• The range of a function f : A → B is the set of all elements b of B for
which there exists some a ∈ A such that b = f (a). This is a subset of B
in general. Figuring out what this subset is can be difficult.
Sometimes one is given a formula, with or without a description of some
context, and asked to figure out the domain of a function on which
√ the formula
makes sense in the given context. For example, the formula x2 − 9 can be
used to define a function whose domain is [−3, 3] := {x : −3 ≤ x ≤ 3}. However
in some contexts, one may want to restrict to a smaller domain, for example, to
[0, 3] := {x : 0 ≤ x ≤ 3}.
Examples
• Linear functions. Given real numbers m and b one can define a function
f : R → R : x 7→ mx + b.
1
will tell us how much f will change if we change x. Precisely, if ∆x is the
amount we change x0 , so that x1 := x0 + ∆x, then f changes by m∆x.
Precisely, if ∆y := f (x1 ) − f (x0 ), then
∆y = m∆x.
What makes the graph a straight line is the fact that this equation holds
for all x0 and all ∆x.
• Power functions. Given a natural number n (that is, n = 0, 1, 2, . . .), we
can form the function
fn : R → R : x 7→ xn .
You should know what the graphs of these look like. Note that
fn (−x) = fn (x) if n is even
fn (−x) = −fn (x) if n is odd
For negative n, fn (x) is only defined if x 6= 0:
fn : R \ {0} → R.
If r is a rational number, that is, r = p/q where p and q are integers (with
q 6= 0), one can define fr by doing some work as follows.
Theorem-Definition Let x be a nonnegative real number and let r :=
p/q be a rational number. Then there is a unique real number y such that
y q = xp . By definition, fr : R≥ → R≥ is the function which takes each x
to the corresponding y.
In fact, this definition can be extended to work for irrational values of r
as well, but it takes some time to carry this out. (One must approximate
such values of r by rational ones.)