Math 401 Notes

Section 3.1.3

Section 3.1.3
In this section, well spend some time thinking about one-to-one functions and inverse functions. Problem 1: Suppose that one gallon of paint is advertised as painting an area of 400 square feet. a. Write a function, f (n), for the area that can be painted by n gallons.

b. Write a function, g( A), for the number of gallons of paint that are needed to paint A square feet.

c. Why are these functions inverses? What can we say about g( f (n)) and f ( g( A))?

d. More traditionally, we can call these functions f ( x ) and f 1 ( x ). How does the switching variables trick appear in this example?

Math 401 Notes Problem 2: What is the inverse of f ( x) = 5x 3

Section 3.1.3

Problem 3: What is the inverse of f (x) = x+1 x1 if x 0 if x < 0

What is the domain and range of the inverse?

Math 401 Notes Problem 4: Solve

Section 3.1.3

x2 =3 5 showing each step as a composition of functions.

Problem 5: Could we solve the problem in one step using composition of functions?

Math 401 Notes

Section 3.1.3

Problem 6: What about equations involving functions that are not one-to-one? How can we think about the solution of x2 = 4 using composition of functions?

Math 401 Notes What is ( f 1 f )( x ) =? What is its domain?

Section 3.1.3

What is ( f f 1 )( x )? What it its domain?

More generally, we can write f 1 f = I A and f f 1 = I f ( A ) In R, IR = 1 x + 0 This explains some of the weird inverses that almost, but dont quite, match up. Problem 7: What is the inverse of f ( x ) = x?

Math 401 Notes Inverse Operations in R: The operations of adding a and subtracting a undo each other. That is, f ( x ) = x + a and f 1 ( x ) = x a are inverses. In other words, a and a are additive inverses of each other. Similarly, g( x ) = x a and g1 ( x ) = x / a are inverses.

Section 3.1.3

and, a and 1/ a are multiplicative inverses of each other ( a = 0). Problem 8: Are p( x ) = x a and q( x ) = a x inverses? With what restrictions on a and x?

Problem 9: Are s( x ) = a x and t( x ) = loga x inverses? With what restrictions on a and x?

Math 401 Notes Are derivative and integral inverse operations in the domain of functions? d f ( x ) and dx are functions that operate on functions. Recall the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus:
x a

Section 3.1.3

f (t) dt

First part:

d dx

x a b

f (t) dt = f ( x ) f (t) dt = F (b) F ( a)

Second part:

The second part can be rewritten,

x a

d f (t) dt = f ( x ) f ( a) dt

d to have an inverse operation? Is there any way to restrict the dx operation so that it has an inverse? Why is it impossible for

Math 401 Notes Problem 10: Find all solutions of

Section 3.1.3

1 =0 x2 3 using the idea of an inverse function. x2 3

Problem 11: Find the domain and range of

(sin1 sin)( x )