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Online Notes / Algebra / Common Graphs / Transformations
Algebra

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Miscellaneous Functions E-Book   Chapter   Section Symmetry

In this section we are going to see how knowledge of some fairly simple graphs can help us graph some more complicated graphs.  Collectively the methods we’re going to be looking at in this section are called transformations.

 

Vertical Shifts

The first transformation we’ll look at is a vertical shift. 

 

Given the graph of  the graph of  will be the graph of  shifted up by c units if c is positive and or down by c units if c is negative.

 

So, if we can graph  getting the graph of  is fairly easy.  Let’s take a look at a couple of examples.

 

Example 1  Using transformations sketch the graph of the following functions.

(a)     [Solution]

(b)     [Solution]

Solution

The first thing to do here is graph the function without the constant which by this point should be fairly simple for you.  Then shift accordingly.

 

(a)  

In this case we first need to graph  (the dotted line on the graph below) and then pick this up and shift it upwards by 3.  Coordinate wise this will mean adding 3 onto all the y coordinates of points on . 

 

Here is the sketch for this one.

Trans_Ex1_G1

[Return to Problems]

(b)  

Okay, in this case we’re going to be shifting the graph of  (the dotted line on the graph below) down by 5.  Again, from a coordinate standpoint this means that we subtract 5 from the y coordinates of points on .

 

Here is this graph.

Trans_Ex1_G2

[Return to Problems]

 

So, vertical shifts aren’t all that bad if we can graph the “base” function first.  Note as well that if you’re not sure that you believe the graphs in the previous set of examples all you need to do is plug a couple values of x into the function and verify that they are in fact the correct graphs.

 

Horizontal Shifts

These are fairly simple as well although there is one bit where we need to be careful. 

 

Given the graph of  the graph of  will be the graph of  shifted left by c units if c is positive and or right by c units if c is negative.

 

Now, we need to be careful here a positive c shifts a graph in the negative direction and a negative c shifts a graph in the positive direction.  There are exactly opposite than vertical shifts and it’s easy to flip these around and shift incorrectly if we aren’t being careful.

 

Example 2  Using transformations sketch the graph of the following functions.

(a)     [Solution]

(b)     [Solution]

Solution

(a)  

Okay, with these we need to first identify the “base” function.  That is the function that’s being shifted.  In this case it looks like we are shifting .  We can then see that,

                                                    

 

In this case  and so we’re going to shift the graph of  (the dotted line on the graph below) and move it 2 units to the left.  This will mean subtracting 2 from the x coordinates of all the points on .

 

Here is the graph for this problem.

Trans_Ex2_G1

[Return to Problems]

 

(b)  

In this case it looks like the base function is  and it also looks like  and so we will be shifting the graph of  (the dotted line on the graph below) to the right by 4 units.  In terms of coordinates this will mean that we’re going to add 4 onto the x coordinate of all the points on .

 

Here is the sketch for this function.

Trans_Ex2_G2

[Return to Problems]

 

Vertical and Horizontal Shifts

Now we can also combine the two shifts we just got done looking at into a single problem.  If we know the graph of  the graph of  will be the graph of  shifted left or right by c units depending on the sign of c and up or down by k units depending on the sign of k.

 

Let’s take a look at a couple of examples.

 

Example 3  Use transformation to sketch the graph of each of the following.

(a)     [Solution]

(b)     [Solution]

Solution

(a)  

In this part it looks like the base function is  and it looks like will be shift this to the right by 2 (since  ) and up by 4 (since  ).  Here is the sketch of this function.

Trans_Ex3_G1

[Return to Problems]

(b)  

For this part we will be shifting  to the left by 3 (since  ) and down 5 (since  ).  Here is the sketch of this function.

Trans_Ex4_G1

[Return to Problems]

 

Reflections

The final set of transformations that we’re going to be looking at in this section aren’t shifts, but instead they are called reflections and there are two of them.

 

Reflection about the x-axis. 

Given the graph of  then the graph of  is the graph of  reflected about the x-axis.  This means that the signs on the all the y coordinates are changed to the opposite sign.

 

 Reflection about the y-axis. 

Given the graph of  then the graph of  is the graph of  reflected about the y-axis.  This means that the signs on the all the x coordinates are changed to the opposite sign.

 

Here is an example of each.