Exercise 1: Sums, quotients and compositions: the domain comes from the construction
Thomas 1.2 builds new functions from old ones. For a sum, a difference or a product, must be in the domain of BOTH functions. For a quotient , in addition, . For a composition , must be in the domain of AND the output must be in the domain of . In every case the domain is decided on the functions as they are GIVEN: a formula simplified afterwards can accept numbers that the construction refused.
Parts a) to c) use and . Part d) uses and .
- a) Find the domains of , and . Then simplify and give the domain of .
- b) Find , its domain, and .
- c) Find , its domain, and . Is ?
- d) Find as a simple fraction, with its domain, and compute .
- e) Write and each as a composition of three simple functions, naming the innermost one. Give the domain of and compute .
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Answers
- a) : ; : ; : ; with domain
- b) , domain ,
- c) , domain , ; no
- d) , domain ,
- e) with , , ; with , , ; domain of : ;
a) since , and since . The sum needs both: . The quotient needs both AND : at , so . The quotient loses instead, where : . The product is the trap of the part: , a formula that accepts every real number, yet does not exist because does not. The domain is , the domain of the construction, not the domain of the simplified formula .
b) . Inner function first: . Then its output must be a legal input of : , that is . Both sides are nonnegative, so squaring keeps the inequality: , . The domain is . Check at the edge: exists, and at the inner output is , refused by . Value: , then . Stopping at the first condition and answering is the lost mark: the outer root needs its own condition.
c) . Inner: . Outer: , so , and squaring two nonnegative sides, , . Domain . Value: and . The two compositions are different functions with different domains, and : already at , does not even exist since . So ; the order of a composition is part of its definition.
d) , a COMPLEX FRACTION. The algebraic gesture: multiply the numerator and the denominator by , the denominator of the small fractions, which is legal because has already been required: . Domain, from the construction: for the inner , and the output must be in the domain of , that is , so . The domain is . The simplified formula gives at , but does not exist, so does not either. Value: , , and agrees. Two common algebra slips here: adding as , and cancelling the of the top with the one of the bottom as if the were not there.
e) Read the way a calculator computes it: take , form , take its cosine, cube the result. Notation first: MEANS , the cube of the cosine, never . So is innermost, then , then , and , written in the reverse of the order in which it acts. For : , then , then , so . The exponential accepts every real exponent, so only the root restricts: , domain . . These decompositions are not unique ( could be one layer), but the innermost function must act FIRST in any of them; they are exactly the layers the chain rule of chapter 10 will ask you to name.
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