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Lecture1 2

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10 views7 pages

Lecture1 2

Uploaded by

8tzvxb8csk
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Domain and range

Consider a function f : R → R.
The domain of f is the set of all real numbers a such that f (a) is defined.
e.g., for f (x) = x2 , the domain is all of R: a2 is defined for all a ∈ R.
e.g., for f (x) = x1 , the domain is NOT R: 10 is undefined. However 1
a is
defined for all a ̸= 0. Hence this function has domain R \ {0}.

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The range of f is the set of all f (a) for a in the domain of f .
(So the domain of f is the set of valid x-values for f ; the range is the set
of valid y-values for f .)
A function f : R → R is then a rule for assigning to each element x of its
domain the element f (x) in its range. Remember: given x in the domain
of f , there is one and only one f (x) (in the range of f ).
Domain and range can usually be worked out from
the rule given for the function;
the graph of the function.

Example. y = f (x) = 3x − 2 has domain = range = R.


First: 3a − 2 is defined for all a ∈ R.
Secondly, let b ∈ R. Then b = 3( b+2 b+2
3 ) − 2; so b = f (a) where a = 3 . All
real numbers occur as second components/y-coordinates of pairs in this f .

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Example. y = f (x) = x1 has domain = R \ {0}. What is its range? Look
at the graph. From any point on the y-axis EXCEPT y = 0, we can draw a
horizontal line across that cuts the graph of y = x1 . Thus range = R \ {0}.
Another way: if b ∈ R \ {0} then b = f (1/b).

Example. y = f (x) = x2 + 3 has domain = R. Since x2 ≥ 0 for all


x ∈ R, and thus x2 + 3 ≥ 3, we see that the range of this function is all
real numbers ≥ 3. (Think about why, for each b ∈ R such that b ≥ 3,
there is a ∈ R such that f (a) = b; try to solve b = 3a2 + 3 for a.)

Example. y = sin x has domain = R. However, from its graph, we see


that sin x oscillates in a continuous curve between +1 and −1: the range
of sin x is the closed interval [−1, 1]; i.e., all y such that −1 ≤ y ≤ 1.
y = cos x has the same domain = R, range = [−1, 1] as y = sin x.

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sin x
Example. tan x = cos x is undefined when cos x = 0, i.e., x is an odd
(positive or negative) integer multiple of π/2. Otherwise, tan x is defined.
So the domain of f (x) = tan x is all real numbers except (2k + 1)π/2,
k ∈ Z (here Z denotes the set of integers {· · · , −3, −2, −1, 0, 1, 2, . . .}).
What is the range of tan x?
√
Example. y = 4 − x2 has domain all x such that x2 ≤ 4 (cannot take
square root of negative real number & get a real number).
Now x2 ≤ 4 if and only if −2 ≤ x ≤ 2, i.e., x ∈ [−2, 2].
What is the range of this function? Look at its graph: semicircle above the
x-axis, cutting y-axis at y = 2. Hence the range of this function is = [0, 2].

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Limits

The concept of limit is absolutely fundamental to all of Calculus.


As usual, helps to introduce the concept with examples.
x2 −1
Consider the function y = f (x) = x−1 . The domain excludes x = 1,
12 −1 0
because f (1) = 1−1 = 0, which is undefined. However, we can calculate:
f (0.9) = 1.9
f (0.95) = 1.95
f (0.99) = 1.99
f (0.999) = 1.999
f (0.9999) = 1.9999
..
.

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...and
f (1.1) = 2.1
f (1.01) = 2.01
f (1.001) = 2.001
f (1.0001) = 2.0001
f (1.00001) = 2.00001
..
.
Clearly, although this f (x) is undefined at x exactly equal to 1, it has a
limiting behaviour as x ‘approaches’ 1 (from the left and the right, i.e., for
both x < 1 close to 1 and x > 1 close to 1): we can see that the limiting
value of the function for such x is 2.

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2−1
To repeat: f (x) = xx−1 is undefined at x = 1, but it has the limit of 2 as
x approaches 1 (from the left and the right).
In symbols:
x2 − 1
lim = 2.
x→1 x − 1

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