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Finding composite functions

Through a worked example involving f(x)=√(x²-1) and g(x)=x/(1+x), learn about function composition: the process of combining two functions to create a new function. This involves replacing the input of one function with the output of another function. Also note that the composition of two functions is typically not the same as their composition in the reverse order. Created by Sal Khan.

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  • female robot grace style avatar for user mnmariogirl
    Would one be able to define the new function as its own function.
    For example, the new f(g(x)) would simply be h(x) instead?
    (27 votes)
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  • duskpin ultimate style avatar for user Kaylah
    How do you find a composite function when one is missing for example if the question is "if g(x) = 2x and f(g(x))=3/x, what is f(x)?"
    (11 votes)
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  • blobby green style avatar for user Chase Mulholland
    I am lost, bad at math and give up oof oof ooof oooof I try but I suck :((((
    (9 votes)
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  • male robot hal style avatar for user Mirghani
    couldn't sal simplify the answer in ?
    (5 votes)
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    • blobby green style avatar for user Aiena
      Hi Mirghani,

      You can simplify the expression, but it will still be a hairy expression.

      Let's see how it turns out-
      f(g(x)) = sqrt (x/x+1)^2 - 1
      = sqrt x^2/(x+1)^2 - 1
      = sqrt x^2/(x+1)^2 - (x+1)^2/ (x+1)^2
      = sqrt x^2 - (x+1)^2/ (x+1)^2
      = sqrt x^2 - (x^2 +2x + 1)/ x^2 +2x + 1
      = sqrt x^2 - x^2 -2x - 1 / x^2 +2x + 1
      = sqrt -2x -1/ x^2 + 2x +1

      You can see that it is still is a hairy number and will not help us much if we factored and simplified it.

      I hope that this helps.

      Aiena.
      (14 votes)
  • male robot hal style avatar for user Araa$h
    At around the mark, isn't your answer not simplified enough? The three basic rules of simplifying a radical state that the radicand must not have any perfect square factors, there can't be a radical in the denominator of a fraction, and the radicand can't be a fraction. So, to simplify Sal's answer further we would do sqrt((x^2-1)/(1+sqrt(x^2-1)))*(((1-sqrt(x^2-1))/(1-sqrt(x^2-1))). Therefore, we would get (x^2-1-sqrt(x^2-1))/x^2.

    Please reply if I have any mistakes.
    (5 votes)
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  • aqualine ultimate style avatar for user Lianne
    For f( g(x)), couldn't we just plug in the value of g(x)?
    (3 votes)
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    • male robot hal style avatar for user Jesse
      You could if you were looking at a particular value of x. In this example, Sal was simply using the two functions to build a single function. This is useful in that if you knew a value for x, you could now evaluate a single function rather than having to successively evaluate two different functions. If you need to evaluate the composition at many different input values, generating a composition function algebraically is often more efficient.
      (6 votes)
  • aqualine ultimate style avatar for user Lindsay MacVean
    I was able to further simplify f(g(x)) =
    sqrt((x^2/(1+x)^2) + 1)
    Normalize the 1 = (x+1)^2/(x+1)^2 and expand quadratics
    sqrt((x^2-x^2+2x+1)/(x+1)^2)
    = sqrt(2x+1) / (x +1)

    Is this correct?
    (4 votes)
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  • aqualine ultimate style avatar for user JumpingHorseDancer
    Is it possible to do this mentally? Or is better to write the whole thing out? What do you guys think?
    (4 votes)
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    • aqualine ultimate style avatar for user itimespi
      With practice, you will most likely be able to find composite functions mentally. This may not happen for all problems, but for some, it certainly will.

      For example, if f(x) = x + 1, and g(x) = x^2, finding f(g(x)) wouldn't most likely be regarded as hard, since you can simply substitute the x^2 in to get f(g(x)) = x^2 + 1

      However, if you were given a harder example, such as f(x) = (x + tanxsecx - x!/sqrt(x)) and g(x) = cscx * arccos(x), then finding the composite function mentally would probably be harder.
      (2 votes)
  • aqualine ultimate style avatar for user Williams Yemisrach
    I don't fully understand finding composite functions can you help me with it.
    (1 vote)
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    • hopper cool style avatar for user yashikakathuria
      Sure!

      Usually what we have is we have a variable with a certain value assigned to it. We then put those variable into functions, equations, etc to find what we need.

      Ex: We have the variable x, now we can assign it into any form of a function we want. 3x^2 + 3x + 1, we can use it in a quadratic form, linear x + 3, polynomial x^4 + 3x^2 + 1. The variable we have, x is like a folder, it has a certain value/name assigned to it. We can say that x= 5 and assign these equations to another variable, y.

      Ex: y = 2x^2 + 2x +1. If we want to find the value for y given that x =5, it's quite simple. Just plug in the value of 5 wherever you see x in the equation.

      2x^2 + 2x + 1 (x=5) --> 2(5)^2 + 2(5) + 1 = 2 * 25 + 10 + 1 = 36.

      We can use the same equation but change the value for x.

      You might be wondering what was the point of that whole explanation, but that is the same way with composite functions. Instead of assigning another number into a variable, you are inputting an equation with another variable.

      Ex: Suppose we have our quadratic equation, f(x) =x^2.

      Now, suppose we are told that we have another equation g(x) = 2x.

      What is f(g(x))?

      This might seem a bit intimidating, but it is quite simple.Just doing the same thing we did with our normal variables and plugging it in.

      (Ex: if we have t(x)= 2x^2 and said we needed to find t(3) that is just = 2*(3)^2). Just let the equation/variable g(x) inside f(x) equal to the value of x inside x^2
      )

      We are just letting the x = g(x)
      We aren't saying that whatever we plug into x will be inputted into g(x) and get the same value, we are just saying, that whenever we find the value of x in the function f(x) we will plug in that value into the equation.

      (you might be familiar with this if you take computer science, we are just assigning a variable to an equation, even though necessarily x doesn't equal to g(x) or 2x)


      Let's solve it now!

      1) Rewriting the equations again
      f(x)= x^2

      g(x)= 2x


      2) Rewriting the question we need to solve and the information we know.
      f(g(x)) g(x)=x ---> x=(2x)

      f(2x)

      3) Plugging 2x for the value of x in the function f(x)

      f(x) = x^2

      f(2x) = (2x)^2

      Therefore f(g(x)) = 4x^2


      Now what if we were to find g(f(x))?

      That is just g(x^2)

      We are doing the same thing we did before, but this time, letting the input within g(x) as the value of f(x) or x^2.

      g(x) = 2x
      f(x) = x^2
      g(f(x)) = g(x^2)
      g(x^2) = 2(x^2)


      Hopefully I was able to give you a good overview of what composite functions are, now for some harder examples:

      f(x) = x-3/x-4
      g(x) = ∛3x

      What is g(f(x)) and f(g(x))

      g(x-3/x-4) = ∛3(x-3/x-4)= ∛(3x-9/x-4)

      f(∛3x) = (∛3x)-3/(∛3x)-4


      I hope you were able to understand this topic better.
      As always do let me know if you have any questions or doubts.


      Some links if you would like:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFPkQkURSxk
      https://www.storyofmathematics.com/composite-functions
      https://www.google.com/search?q=composite+functions&source=lnms&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjJ57Pj4anyAhWQXM0KHSY8A_wQ_AUoAHoECAEQAg&biw=1289&bih=597&dpr=1.49&safe=active&ssui=on
      (7 votes)
  • blobby green style avatar for user Nishit Samarth
    How do you find the domain and range of this function?
    (3 votes)
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Video transcript

Voiceover:When we first got introduced to function composition, we looked at actually evaluating functions at a point, or compositions of functions at a point. What I wanna do in this video is come up with expressions that define a function composition. So, for example, I wanna figure out, what is, f of, g of x? f of, g of x. And I encourage you to pause the video, and try to think about it on your own. Well, g of x in this case, is the input to f of x. So, wherever we see the x in this definition, that's the input. So we're going to replace the input with g of x. We're going to replace the x with g of x. So, f of g of x is going to be equal to the square root of- Well instead of an x, we would write a g of x. g of x, g of x squared. g of x squared, minus one. Now what is g of x equal to? Well, g of x is this thing right over here. So this is going to be equal to the square root of, g of x, is x over 1 plus x. We're going to square that. We're going to square that, minus 1. So f of g of x, is also a function of x. So f of g of x is a square root of, and we could write this as x squared over 1 plus x squared, but we could just leave it like this. It's equal to the square root of this whole thing, x over 1 plus x, squared, minus one. Now let's go the other way round. What is g of f of x? What is g of f of x? And once again, I encourage you to pause the video, and try to think about it on your own. Well, f of x is now the input into g of x. So everywhere we see the x here, we'll replace it with f of x. So this is going to be equal to, this is going to be equal to, f of x, over- Let me do it in the same color, so you can appreciate it better. f of x over, one plus f of x. One plus f of x. And what's that equal to? Well, f of x is equal to the square root, of x squared minus one. x squared minus one. So it's gonna be that over 1, plus the square root. One plus the square root of x squared minus one. So this is a composition f of g of x, you get this thing. This is g of f of x, where you get this thing. And to be clear, these are very different expressions. So typically, you want the composition one way. This isn't gonna be the same as the composition the other way, unless the functions are designed in a fairly special way.