Functions and

Function Notation
Learning Objectives
1 Write and interpret functions using function
notation

2 Explain how a function is a process or a

correspondence

3 Solve function equations for a given variable using

an equation, table, and graph

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Functions

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Functions
For a car loan, two primary factors come into play: the
applicant’s credit score and the interest rate a lender is
willing to offer.

Since both of these factors can change, we call them

variables and denote them with letters such as c for credit
score and r for interest rate. A numeric value that does not
change is called a constant.

For instance, a constant in this situation is the price of the

car, assuming that the price will not change during the
negotiation process.
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Functions

Functions are typically expressed as a combination of

variables and constants.

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Functions

Alternatively, a function may be

thought of as a correspondence
between two sets of values.
That is, each item from a set of
inputs is matched with a single
item from a set of outputs, as
shown in Figure 1.3.
A Function as a Correspondence
Figure 1.3
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Functions
Function correspondences do not have to include numbers.
Figure 1.4 shows a correspondence relating tennis
tournaments with the locations of the tournaments.

Tennis Tournament Correspondence

Figure 1.4

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Determining If a Relationship Is a
Function

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Determining If a Relationship Is a Function

Let’s look at a function as a correspondence in a

relationship between credit score and loan interest rate. A
credit score can range from 300 to 850.

According to Fair Isaac Corporation,

most people have scores between
600 and 800.

Table 1.9 shows how the FICO

score impacts the interest rate a
person is able to obtain on a loan.
Table 1.9

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Determining If a Relationship Is a Function

The relationship between the person’s credit score, c, and

the annual interest rate, r, is a function because each credit
score (input) produces only one interest rate (output).

For example, a person who has a credit score (input) of

744 can secure an annual interest rate (output) of 6.52%.

We also need to be aware that there are relationships

between variables that are not functions.

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Determining If a Relationship Is a Function

For example, consider the relationship that exists between

the US Airways’ Italian destination cities from Tucson, AZ,
and Reno, NV, shown in Figure 1.5.

U.S. Airways’ Destination Cities in Italy

Figure 1.5

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Determining If a Relationship Is a Function

We can see that both Reno and Tucson have multiple

destination cities in Italy.

The fact that each input (origination city) has more than
one output (destination city) makes this relationship not a
function. To be a function, each input must only have one
output—Tucson and Reno would need to have only one
destination city each.

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Vertical Line Test

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Vertical Line Test
If a relationship between two variables exists and is
represented as a graph in the rectangular coordinate
system, the vertical line test may be used to determine if
the relationship is a function.

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Vertical Line Test
Using the vertical line test, we determine that the graph in
Figure 1.6 is not a function because the vertical line
crosses the graph more than once. For example, the
vertical line shows that the input of 9 has two outputs,
3 and –3.

Figure 1.6
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Function Notation

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Function Notation
Functions may also be defined using function notation, a
formal mathematical notation developed to communicate
mathematical concepts on a universal scale.

Consider the car loan scenario we discussed earlier. To

express the relationship between the two variables in
verbal terms we say that the interest rate, r, depends on
the person’s credit score, c. In mathematical terms we say
that “r is a function of c.”

We are expressing the credit score c as an input variable

whose value determines the interest rate r through a
function correspondence.
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Function Notation
In function notation we denote this as f (c) = r. The input
variable c is the independent variable and the output
variable r is the dependent variable because the value of r
depends on the value of c.

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Example 1 – Using Function Notation
Write each of the following sentences in function notation
by choosing meaningful letters to represent each variable.

Then identify the independent variable (input) and the

dependent variable (output).

a. A person’s weight is a function of the person’s height.

b. The current gas price is a function of the amount of

available crude oil.

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Example 1 – Solution
a. Selecting w for the person’s weight and h for the height,
we represent this function as f (h) = w. The function f
takes a value for the independent variable h and
generates a value for the dependent variable w.

b. Selecting g for the gas price and c for the available crude
oil, we represent this function as f (c) = g. The function f
will take a value for the independent variable c and
generates a value for the dependent variable g.

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Evaluating Functions and Solving
Function Equations

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Evaluating Functions and Solving Function Equations

We can evaluate functions using function notation.

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Example 2 – Evaluating a Function from a Formula

Suppose that your current job pays $11.50 per hour. Your
salary, S, is calculated by multiplying $11.50 by the number
of hours you work, h. That is, Salary = $11.50? Hours or, in
function notation, S = f (h) = 11.5h. Evaluate f (80) and
explain what the numerical answer means.

Solution:
To evaluate f (80) means to find the numerical value of S
that results from “plugging in” 80 for the number of hours.

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Example 2 – Solution
We have

In other words, when h = 80, S = 920. This means that if

you work 80 hours your salary will be $920.

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Evaluating Functions and Solving Function Equations

To find the input value that corresponds with a given

output, we must solve a function equation.

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Example 4 – Solving an Equation from a
Formula
As stated earlier, the salary from a job that pays $11.50 per
hour is given by the function S = f (h) = 11.5h.

Solve f (h) = 805 for h. Explain what the numerical answer

means in its real-world context.

Solution:
To solve f (h) = 805 means to find the number of hours h
that must be put into function f to generate $805 in salary.
That is, we need to find the number of hours that must be
worked to earn $805.

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Example 4 – Solution cont’d

To find this, we set the salary, f (h), equal to 805 and solve
for h.

This means that if you want to earn $805 at a job that pays
$11.50 per hour, you must work 70 hours.
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Condensed Function Notation

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Condensed Function Notation
Mathematicians constantly look for ways to more efficiently
communicate mathematical concepts.

For example, we can represent a function that converts h

hours into D dollars using the function notation D = f (h).

However, this notation becomes cumbersome when

calculating particular values. If a person earns $8 per hour,
we have D = f (h) = 8h.

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Condensed Function Notation
Given that the person has worked 25 hours, we use the
equation to calculate the worker’s earnings as

The multiple equal signs makes this difficult to read and

understand quickly.

To make things easier, we often rewrite the equation

D = f (h) = 8h as D(h) = 8h.

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Condensed Function Notation
This condensed notation is less cumbersome to work with
and avoids the series of equal signs.

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Example 5 – Evaluating a Function and Solving an Equation from a Table

The number of golf courses in the United States has

increased over the years. As seen in Table 1.10, the
number of golf facilities, G, is a function of the years since
1980, t. We write this in condensed function notation as
G(t). Use the table to do each of the following.

Table 1.10

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Example 5 – Evaluating a Function and Solving an Equation from a Table
cont’d

a. Solve G(t) = 12,846 for t and explain what the numerical

value means in this context.

b. Evaluate G(20) and explain what the numerical value

means in this context.

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Example 5 – Solution
a. To “solve G(t) = 12,846 for t” means to determine the
year when the number of golf courses was 12,846. From
the table we can see that there were 12,846 golf courses
10 years after 1980. That is, in 1990.

b. To evaluate G(20) means to determine the number of

golf courses in the year 20. When we locate 20 in the
Years column of the table, we see that there were
15,489 golf courses in that year. In other words, in 2000
there were 15,489 golf courses in the United States.

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Multivariable Functions

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Multivariable Functions
Sometimes functions have more than one dependent
variable.

For example, a credit report contains information such as

the number and type of accounts, bill-paying history,
collection actions, outstanding debt, and the age of the
accounts.

The credit scoring system predicts who is most likely to

repay a debt by awarding points for these creditworthiness
factors. Thus, the credit scoring system is a mathematical
model represented by a multivariable function.
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Multivariable Functions
Other common multivariable functions include the
compound interest formula

and the formula for volume of a box V = lwh.

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