MATH 221 Lecture 14

Arun Ram
Department of Mathematics and Statistics
University of Melbourne
Parkville, VIC 3010 Australia
aram@unimelb.edu.au

Last update: 6 August 2012

Graphing Techniques

(a)Basic Graphs
(b)Shifting
(c)Scaling
(d)Flipping
(e)Limits
(f)Asymptotes
(g)Slopes: Increasing/Decreasing
(h)Concave Up/Concave down points of Inflection

Basic Graphs

1 1 x y y=x x y -1 1 1 y=x2

x y -1 1 -1 1 x2+y2=1 x y 1 -1 x2-y2=1

y 1 -1 x -3π -5π2 -2π -3π2 -π -π2 π2 π 3π2 2π 5π2 3π y=sin⁡x y 1 -1 x -3π -5π2 -2π -3π2 -π -π2 π2 π 3π2 2π 5π2 3π y=cos⁡x

x y 1 y=ex

Shifting

Example: Graph x-3 2 + y-2 2 = 1

37.790960 x 1 2 3 y 1 2 (3,2) 1
Notes:
(a) x2 + y2 =1 is a basic circle of radius 1
(b) Center is shifted by
3 to the right in the x-direction
2 upwards in the y-direction.

Scaling

Example: Graph 2y= sin⁡3x

y 1 -1 x -π -5π6 -3π3 -π2 -π3 -π6 π6 π3 π2 2π3 5π6 π
Notes:
(a) y=sin⁡x is the basic graph
(b) The x-axis is scaled (squished) by 3
(c) The y-axis is scaled by 2

Flipping

Example: Graph y=-e-x

x y -1
Notes:
(a) y=ex is the basic graph
(b) y=-e-x is the same as -y=e-x
(c) The x-axis is flipped
(d) The y-axis is flipped

Example: Graph y=sin⁡(1x)

x y 1 -1 -1π -12π 12π 1π 2π

Notes:
(a) y=sin⁡x is the basic graph
(b) Positive x-axis is flipped
(c) Negative x-axis is flipped
(d) As x→∞, sin⁡(1x)→0+
(e) As x→-∞, sin⁡(1x)→0-
(f) As x→0+, sin⁡(1x) goes between +1 and -1.

Example: Graph y=sin-1⁡x

x -1 1 y 3π2 π π2 -π2 -π -3π2
Notes:
(a) y=sin⁡x is the basic graph
(b) y=sin-1⁡x is the same as sin⁡y=x
so x and y axis are switched from y=sin⁡x graph.

Asymptotes

An asymptote of a graph y=f⁡(x) as x→a is another graph y=g⁡(x) that the original graph gets closer and closer to as x gets closer to a.

Example: Graph x2 - y2 =1

x y 1 -1 y=x y=-x
Notes:
(a) If y=0 then x=±1.
(b) x2 - y2 =1 is the same as 1- y2 x2 = 1 x2 .
As x→∞ this becomes 1- yx 2 =0.
So, as x→∞ y2=x2 . So y=±x.
So y=x is an asymptote as x→∞
y=-x is an asymptote as x→∞
As x→∞, 1- y2 x2 becomes 1- yx 2 =0.
So, as x→∞, the graph is y2 = x2, or y=±x.
So y=x is an asymptote as x→-∞.
y=-x is also an asymptote as x→-∞.

Example: f⁡(x)= 1-cos⁡x x2 , if x≠0 , 1 , if x=0 ,

lim x → 0 ⁡ 1-cos⁡x x2 = lim x → 0 ⁡ 1- 1 - x2 2! + x4 4! - x6 6! + … x2
lim x → 0 ⁡ x2 2! - x4 4! + x6 6! - … x2 = lim x → 0 ⁡ 12 - x2 4! + x4 6! - x6 8! + …
= 12 -0+0-0 +… = 12
So lim x → 0 ⁡ f⁡(x) =12. Since f⁡(0)=1, lim x → 0 ⁡ f⁡(x) ≠ f⁡(0).
So f⁡(x) is not continuous at x=0.

y 1 -1 x -3π -5π2 -2π -3π2 -π -π2 π2 π 3π2 2π 5π2 3π y=cos⁡x y 1 -1 x -3π -5π2 -2π -3π2 -π -π2 π2 π 3π2 2π 5π2 3π y=-cos⁡x

x y 2 1 -3π -5π2 -2π -3π2 -π -π2 π2 π 3π2 2π 5π2 3π y=1-cos⁡x x y -1 1 1 y=1x2

x y 12 1 y=2x2 y = f⁡(x) = { 1-cos⁡x x2 , x≠0 , 1 , x=0 ,
Notes:
(a) As x→0, 1-cos⁡x x2 → 12
(b) As f⁡(0) =1
(c) At the peaks of 1-cos⁡x, 1-cos⁡x x2 = 2 x2

Notes and References

These are a typed copy of lecture notes given by Arun Ram on October 9, 2000.

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