12/14/2017 Domain and Range of a Function

Domain and Range of a Function

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Definitions of Domain and Range

Domain
The domain of a function is the complete set of possible values of the independent variable.

In plain English, this definition means:

The domain is the set of all possible x-values which will make the function "work", and will output
real y-values.

When finding the domain, remember:

The denominator (bottom) of a fraction cannot be zero

The number under a square root sign must be positive in this section

Example 1a
Here is the graph of \displaystyle{y}=\sqrt{{{x}+{4}}}y=x+4 :

Interactive examples
Don't miss the applet exploring these examples here:

Domain and Range interactive applet

The domain of this function is \displaystyle{x}\ge-{4}x4, since x cannot be less than

\displaystyle-{4}4. To see why, try out some numbers less than \displaystyle-{4}4 (like
\displaystyle-{5}5 or \displaystyle-{10}10) and some more than \displaystyle-{4}4 (like
\displaystyle-{2}2 or \displaystyle{8}8) in your calculator. The only ones that "work" and give us
an answer are the ones greater than or equal to \displaystyle-{4}4. This will make the number
under the square root positive.

Notes:

1. The enclosed (colored-in) circle on the point \displaystyle{\left(-{4},{0}\right)}(4,0). This

indicates that the domain "starts" at this point.
2. We saw how to draw similar graphs in section 4, Graph of a Function. For a more
advanced discussion, see also How to draw y^2 = x 2.

How to find the domain

In general, we determine the domain of each function by looking for those values of the
independent variable (usually x) which we are allowed to use. (Usually we have to avoid 0 on the
bottom of a fraction, or negative values under the square root sign).

Continues below
12/14/2017 Domain and Range of a Function

Range
The range of a function is the complete set of all possible resulting values of the dependent
variable (y, usually), after we have substituted the domain.

In plain English, the definition means:

The range is the resulting y-values we get after substituting all the possible x-values.

How to find the range

The range of a function is the spread of possible y-values (minimum y-value to maximum
y-value)
Substitute different x-values into the expression for y to see what is happening. (Ask
yourself: Is y always positive? Always negative? Or maybe not equal to certain values?)
Make sure you look for minimum and maximum values of y.
Draw a sketch! In math, it's very true that a picture is worth a thousand words.

Example 1b
Let's return to the example above, \displaystyle{y}=\sqrt{{{x}+{4}}}y=x+4 .

We notice the curve is either on or above the horizontal axis. No matter what value of x we try,
we will always get a zero or positive value of y. We say the range in this case is y 0.

Range: \displaystyle{y}\ge{0}y0
y
The curve goes on forever vertically, beyond 3
what is shown on the graph, so the range is
all non-negative values of \displaystyle{y}y.

x
-4 -3 -2 -1 1 2 3 4 5

Example 2
The graph of the curve y = sin x shows the range to be betweeen 1 and 1.

Range: \displaystyle-{1}\le{y}\le{1}1y1
The domain of y = sin x is "all values of x", since there are no restrictions on the values for x.
(Put any number into the "sin" function in your calculator. Any number should work, and will
give you a final answer between 1 and 1.)

From the calculator experiment, and from observing the curve, we can see the range is y
betweeen 1 and 1. We could write this as 1 y 1.
12/14/2017 Domain and Range of a Function

Where did this graph come from? We

y
learn about sin and cos graphs later in
Graphs of sin x and cos x 1

Note 1: Because we are assuming that only

real numbers are to be used for the x-values,
numbers that lead to division by zero or to
x
imaginary numbers (which arise from
finding the square root of a negative -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 1 2 3 4 5
number) are not included. The Complex
Numbers chapter explains more about
imaginary numbers, but we do not include
such numbers in this chapter. -1

Note 2: When doing square root examples,

many people ask, "Don't we get 2 answers, one positive and one negative when we find a square
root?" A square root has at most one value, not two. See this discussion: Square Root 16 - how
many answers?

Note 3: We are talking about the domain and range of functions, which have at most one y-
value for each x-value, not relations (which can have more than one.).

Finding domain and range without using a graph

It's always a lot easier to work out the domain and range when reading it off the graph (but we
must make sure we zoom in and out of the graph to make sure we see everything we need to
see). However, we don't always have acces to graphing software, and sketching a graph usually
requires knowing about discontinuities and so on first anyway.

As meantioned earlier, the key things to check for are:

1. There are no negative values under a square root sign

2. The are no zero values in the denominator (bottom) of a fraction

Example 3
Find the domain and range of the function
\displaystyle f{{\left({x}\right)}}=\frac{\sqrt{{{x}+{2}}}}{{{x}^{2}-{9}}},f(x)=x29x+2 ,
without using a graph.

Solution
In the numerator (top) of this fraction, we have a square root. To make sure the values under the
square root are non-negative, we can only choose \displaystyle{x}x-values grater than or equal
to -2.

The denominator (bottom) has \displaystyle{x}^{2}-{9}x29, which we recognise we can write as

\displaystyle{\left({x}+{3}\right)}{\left({x}-{3}\right)}(x+3)(x3). So our values for \displaystyle{x}x
cannot include \displaystyle-{3}3 (from the first bracket) or \displaystyle{3}3 (from the second).

We don't need to worry about the \displaystyle-{3}3 anyway, because we dcided in the first
step that \displaystyle{x}\ge-{2}x2.
12/14/2017 Domain and Range of a Function

So the domain for this case is \displaystyle{x}\ge-{2},{x}\ne{3}x2,x3, which we can write as

\displaystyle{\left[-{2},{3}\right)}\cup{\left({3},\infty\right)}[2,3)(3,).

To work out the range, we consider top and bottom of the fraction separately.

Numerator: If \displaystyle{x}=-{2}x=2, the top has value

\displaystyle\sqrt{{{2}+{2}}}=\sqrt{{{0}}}={0}2+2 =0 =0. As \displaystyle{x}x increases
value from \displaystyle-{2}2, the top will also increase (out to infinity in both cases).

Denominator: We break this up into four portions:

When \displaystyle{x}=-{2}x=2, the bottom is \displaystyle{\left(-{2}\right)}^{2}-{9}={4}-{9}=-{5}

(2)29=49=5. We have \displaystyle f{{\left(-{2}\right)}}=\frac{0}{{-{5}}}={0}.f(2)=50=0.

Between \displaystyle{x}=-{2}x=2 and \displaystyle{x}={3}x=3,

\displaystyle{\left({x}^{2}-{9}\right)}(x29) gets closer to \displaystyle{0}0, so
\displaystyle f{{\left({x}\right)}}f(x) will go to \displaystyle-\infty as it gets near
\displaystyle{x}={3}x=3.

For \displaystyle{x}>{3}x>3, when \displaystyle{x}x is just bigger than \displaystyle{3}3, the value
of the bottom is just over \displaystyle{0}0, so \displaystyle f{{\left({x}\right)}}f(x) will be a very
large positive number.

For very large \displaystyle{x}x, the top is large, but the bottom will be much larger, so overall,
the function value will be very small.

So we can conclude the range is \displaystyle{\left(-\infty,{0}\right]}\cup{\left(\infty,{0}\right)}

(,0](,0).

Have a look at the graph:

See graph

Summary
In general, we determine the domain by looking for those values of the independent variable
(usually x) which we are allowed to use. (We have to avoid 0 on the bottom of a fraction, or
negative values under the square root sign).

The range is found by finding the resulting y-values after we have substituted in the possible x-
values.

Exercise 1
Find the domain and range for each of the following.

(a) \displaystyle f{{\left({x}\right)}}={x}^{2}+{2}f(x)=x2+2.

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12/14/2017 Domain and Range of a Function

(b) \displaystyle f{{\left({t}\right)}}=\frac{1}{{{t}+{2}}}f(t)=t+21

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(c) \displaystyle g{{\left({s}\right)}}=\sqrt{{{3}-{s}}}g(s)=3s

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(d) \displaystyle f{{\left({x}\right)}}={x}^{2}+{4}f(x)=x2+4 for \displaystyle{x}>{2}x>2

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Exercise 2

More Domain and Range Examples

In case you missed it earlier, you can see more examples of domain and range in the section
Inverse Trigonometric Functions.

See also Domain and Range interactive applet.

We fire a ball up in the air and find the height h, in metres, as a function of time t, in seconds, is
given by

h = 20t 4.9t2

Find the domain and range for the function h(t).

Show answer

Functions defined by coordinates

Sometimes we don't have continuous functions. What do we do in this case? Let's look at an
example.

Exercise 3
Find the domain and range of the function defined by the coordinates:

\displaystyle{\left\lbrace{\left(-{4},{1}\right)},{\left(-{2},{2.5}\right)},{\left({2},-{1}\right)},{\left({3},
{2}\right)}\right\rbrace}
{(4,1),(2,2.5),(2,1),(3,2)}

Show answer

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