Determining Domain
• The domain is the set of all values that can be used for x in an expression.
• The radicand is the value or expression under the radical sign. It must be positive in order to have a real number root.
• Solving inequalities:
• Factor where possible.
• Determine the points where each factor equals zero.
• Determine what intervals produce results that satisfy the inequality as originally stated.

In this type of problem, find out what values of x will help

out.

x 2 – 16 must be positive or there is no real number square

root. That fact leads to setting up an inequality to solve for
x.

Resort to the usual inequality tricks:

1. Factor to get (x + 4) and (x - 4).

2. Set each factor equal to 0.
3. Solve for x .
4. Mark those values on a number line.
5. Choose random points from each interval to determine
which of them satisfy the inequality:
–5 from the left: produces +9, >0; it works.
0 from the middle: produces –16, < 0.
+5 from the right: produces +9, >0; it works.

Mark the left and right intervals as solutions on the number

line and include both –4 and +4 because the expression equals
0 at those points.

What this means is that values between –4 and +4 have been

excluded from the domain of x because they create a negative
value under the radical.

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