Chapter 16
Ten Plus Parent Graphs
IN THIS CHAPTER
Graphing polynomial functions
Picturing absolute value and rational functions
Visualizing exponential and logarithmic functions
Sketching trig functions
A picture is worth a thousand words, and graphing is just math in pictures! These pictures can give you important information about the characteristics of a function. The most basic graphs are called parent graphs. These graphs are in their original, unshifted, unaltered form. Any parent graph can be stretched, shrunk, shifted, flipped, or a combination of these actions. Parent graphs are extremely useful because you can use them to graph a more complicated version of the same function using transformations (see Chapter 3). That way, if you’re given a complex function, you automatically have a basic idea of what the graph will look like without having to plug in a whole bunch of numbers first. Essentially, by knowing what the parent looks like, you get a good idea about the kids — the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, right? In this chapter, you have a full album those family ...
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