Thursday, September 17, 2009

Scribe Post for Unit 1, Day 6

Today in class, we learned about translations of absolute value functions. First, we worked through page 5 in our pink packet which dealt with graphing equations simultaneously using our graphing calculator.

We then moved onto page 6 of our pink packet and took some notes.


  • Standard Absolute Value Form: y = a [ x - h ] + k
  • (h,k) represent the cordinates of the vertex of the graph

Each variable has an effect on the graph.


h - translation right or left

  • y = [ x + 4 ] makes the vertex of the graph 4 to the left on the X-axis
  • y = [ x - 3 ] makes the vertext of the graph 3 to the right on the X-axis
  • *Be careful! Positive means to the left, negative to the right! Opposite of what we're used to!

k - translation up or down

  • y = [ x ] + 4 makes the vertex 4 up on the Y-axis
  • y = [ x ] - 3 makes the vertex 3 down on the Y-axis

a - (the multiplyer) controls the width of the graph and the direction in which it opens

  • if a is greater than 1, it makes a narrow graph
  • if a is less than 1, it will be a wide graph
  • if a is positive the graph will open upward
  • if a is negative the graph will open downward

*Brackets ( [ ] ) stand for the absolute value symbol. I tried using the one above the enter key but everytime I went to publish the post, they would disappear.

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