What Are Functions

3.1 What Are Functions?
Functions are what we use to describe things we want to talk about

mathematically. I find, though, that I get a bit tongue tied when I try to define
them.
The simplest definition is: a function is a bunch of ordered pairs of things (in
our case the things will be numbers, but they can be otherwise), with the
property that the first members of the pairs are all different from one
another.
Thus, here is an example of a function:
[\{1, 1\}, \{2, 1\}, \{3, 2\}][{1,1},{2,1},{3,2}]
This function consists of three pairs, whose first members are 1, 21,2 and 33.
It is customary to give functions names, like f, gf,g or hh, and if we call this
function ff, we generally use the following notation to describe it:
f(1) = 1, f(2) = 1, f(3) = 2f(1)=1,f(2)=1,f(3)=2

The first members of the pairs are called arguments and the whole set of them is
called the domain of the function. Thus the arguments of ff here are 1,
21,2 and 33, and the set consisting of these three numbers is its domain.
The second members of the pairs are called the values of the functions, and the set
of these is called the range of the function.
The standard terminology for describing this function f is:
The value of ff at argument 11 is 11, its value at argument 22 is 11, and its value
at argument 33 is 22, which we write as f(1) = 1, f(2) = 1, f(3) =
2f(1)=1,f(2)=1,f(3)=2.
We generally think of a function as a set of assignments of values (second
members of our pairs) to arguments (their first members).
The condition that the first members of the pairs are all different is the condition
that each argument in the domain of ff is assigned a unique value in its range by
any function.
Exercise 3.1 Consider the function gg, defined by the pairs (1, 1), (2, 5), (3,
1)(1,1),(2,5),(3,1) and (4, 2)(4,2). What is its domain? What is the value
of gg at argument 33? What is g(4)g(4)?
If you stick a thermometer in your mouth, you can measure your temperature, at
some particular time. You can define a function TT or temperature, which assigns
the temperature you measure to the time at which you remove the thermometer
from your mouth. This is a typical function. Its arguments are times of
measurement and its values are temperatures.
Of course your mouth has a temperature even when you don't measure it, and it has
one at every instant of time and there are an infinite number of such instants.
This means that if you want to describe a function TT whose value at any time t is
the temperatures in your mouth at that time, you cannot really list all its pairs.
There are an infinite number of possible arguments tt and it would take you forever
to list them.
Instead, we employ a trick to describe a function ff: we generally provide a rule

which allows you, the reader, to choose any argument you like in ff's domain, and,
by using the rule, to compute the value of your function at that argument. This rule
is often called a formula for the function. The symbol xx is often used to denote
the argument you will select, and the formula tells you how to compute the
function at that argument.
The simplest function of all, sometimes called the identity function, is the one
that assigns as value the argument itself. If we denote this function as ff, it obeys
f(x) = xf(x)=x
for xx in whatever domain we choose for it. In other words, both members of its
pairs are the same wherever you choose to define it.
We can get more complicated functions by giving more complicated rules, (These
rules are often called formulae as we have noted already). Thus we can define
functions by giving any of the following formulae among an infinity of
possibilities:
3x, x^2, x^2-1, \frac{3}{x}, x^3, \frac{x}{x^2 + 1}, 3x + 5, x^2 + 7x -
13x,x2,x2−1,x3,x3,x2+1x,3x+5,x2+7x−1
These represent, respectively, 33 times xx, xx squared, xx squared

minus 11, 33 divided by xx, xx cubed, xx divided by the sum of the square
of xx and 11, and so on.
We can construct functions by applying the operations of addition, subtraction,

multiplication and division to copies of xx and numbers in any way we see fit
to do so.
There are two very nice features of functions that we construct in this way, and the
first applies to all functions.
We can draw a picture of a function, called its graph, on a piece of graph paper, or

on a spreadsheet, chart, or with a graphing calculator. We can do it by taking
argument-value pairs of the function and describing each by a point in the
plane, with xx coordinate given by the argument and y coordinate given by the
value for its pair.
Of course it is impossible to plot all the pairs of a function that has an infinite
domain, but we can get a pretty good idea of what its graph looks like by taking
perhaps a hundred evenly spaced points in any interval of interest to us. This
sounds like an impossibly tedious thing to do and it used to be so, but now it is not.
On a spreadsheet, the main job is to enter the function once (with its argument
given by the address of some other location). That and some copying is all you
have to do, and with practice it can be done in 3030 seconds for a very wide
variety of functions.
The second nice feature is that we can enter any function formed by adding,
subtracting, multiplying, dividing and performing still another operation, on the
contents of some address very easily on a spreadsheet or graphing calculator. Not
only that, these devices have some other built in functions that we can use as well.
The two of these facts mean that we can actually look at any function formed by
adding subtracting multiplying or dividing copies of the identity function xx and
other built in functions, and any number we want, and see how they behave, with
very limited effort.
We will soon see that we can use the same procedure used for graphing functions
to graph their derivatives (we have not defined these yet) as well, but that is getting
ahead of the story. You should realize though that we can compute derivatives for
most functions numerically with only a small amount of effort as well.
Exercise 3.2 What is the value of the function x^2 + 3x2+3 at x = 5x=5? At

argument 1010?
Would you please give some examples?

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3.1 What Are Functions?

Functions are what we use to describe things we want to talk about

Thus, here is an example of a function:

[\{1, 1\}, \{2, 1\}, \{3, 2\}][{1,1},{2,1},{3,2}]

f(1) = 1, f(2) = 1, f(3) = 2f(1)=1,f(2)=1,f(3)=2

The standard terminology for describing this function f is:

Instead, we employ a trick to describe a function ff: we generally provide a rule

These represent, respectively, 33 times xx, xx squared, xx squared

We can construct functions by applying the operations of addition, subtraction,

We can draw a picture of a function, called its graph, on a piece of graph paper, or

Exercise 3.2 What is the value of the function x^2 + 3x2+3 at x = 5x=5? At

Would you please give some examples?

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