Operations on Functions

First you learned (back in grammar school) that you can add, subtract, multiply, and divide numbers. Then you learned that you can add, subtract, multiply, and divide polynomials. Now you will learn that you can also add, subtract, multiply, and divide functions. Performing these operations on functions is no more complicated than the notation itself. For instance, when they give you the formulas for two functions and tell you to find the sum, all they're telling you to do is add the two formulas. There's nothing more to this topic than that, other than perhaps some simplification of the expressions involved.

Given f(x) = 3x + 2 and g(x) = 4 5x, find (f + g)(x), (f g)(x), (fg)(x), and (f / g)(x). To find the answers, all I have to do is apply the operations (plus, minus, times, and divide) that they tell me to, in the order that they tell me to. (f + g)(x) = f(x) + g(x) = [3x + 2] + [4 5x] = 3x 5x + 2 + 4 = 2x + 6 (f g)(x) = f(x) g(x) = [3x + 2] [4 5x] = 3x + 5x + 2 4 = 8x 2 (fg)(x) = [f(x)][g(x)] = (3x + 2)(4 5x) = 12x + 8 15x2 10x = 15x2 + 2x + 8

Given f(x) = 2x, g(x) = x + 4, and h(x) = 5 x3, find (f + g)(2), (h g)(2), (f h)(2), and (h / g)(2). To find the answers, I can either work symbolically (like in the previous example) and then evaluate, or I can find the values of the functions at x = 2 and then work from there. It's probably simpler in this case to evaluate first, so: f(2) = 2(2) = 4 g(2) = (2) + 4 = 6 h(2) = 5 (2)3 = 5 8 = 3 Now I can evaluate the listed expressions: (f + g)(2) = f(2) + g(2) = 4 + 6 = 10 (h g)(2) = h(2) g(2) = 3 6 = 9 (f h)(2) = f(2) h(2) = (4)(3) = 12 (h / g)(2) = h(2) g(2) = 3 6 = 0.5

If you work symbolically first, and plug in the x-value only at the end, you'll still get the same results. Either way will work. Evaluating first is usually easier, but the choice is up to you.

Composition of Functions
It is possible to combine two functions by adding, subtracting, multiplying or dividing two given functions. There is another way to combine two functions to create a new function. It is called composition of two functions. It is a process through which we will substitute an entire function into another function. An important skill to have in this lesson is evaluation of functions First lets get acquainted with the notation that is used for composition of functions. When we want to find the composition of two functions we use the notation . Another way to write this is . This is probably the more practical notation although the first notation is what appears most often in books. But to really understand what the composition of functions is, will work better. and are asked

Recall our notation for evaluating a function. If we are given a function

to find , we would go to the f function, and everywhere there was an x, we would replace it with a 2. So if our notation is now , that says go to the f function and everywhere there is an

x, replace it with the function . Its not a different process than used for evaluating functions it just becomes more awkward because of the notation. Let's Practice: i. Given and find . . So we will go to . This means we now

Solution: Remember that the our ffunction have

notation is the same as

and replace the x with the g function

. If we are then asked to evaluate at a particular point, we would simply plug in the value into our new function. We should be very careful to note that order DOES matter when working with composition of functions. This is illustrated in the example below using the same two functions that we used in our first exercise. ii. Given and find . . So in the g function, everywhere

Solution: To find lets use the notation there is an x, substitute the f function.

This answer is definitely different that what was obtained in our first practice example. So the order in which two functions are composed is important.

iii.

Given

and

find

Solution: We know

so we substitute and get

iv.

Given

and

find and substitute to get

Solution: We use

There are some special situations when and are the same. But it is still important to pay attention to the order of the composition. When we do get the same answer for and and that answer is x, we have two functions that are inverses of each other. Inverses are discussed in another lesson. If you would like to learn more, click here.

Special Functions
Some of these functions I have seen defined under both intervals (0 to x) and (x to inf). In that case, both variant definitions are listed. gamma = Euler's constant = 0.5772156649...

(x) = Gamma(x) = B(x,y) = Ei(x) =

t^(x-1) e^(-t)dt (Gamma function)

t^(x-1) (1-t)^(y-1)DT (Beta function) e^(-t)/t DT (exponential integral) or it's variant,NONEQUIVALENT form:

Ei(x) = li(x) = Si(x) = Si(x) =

+ ln(x) +

(e^t - 1)/t DT = gamma + ln(x) +

(n=1..inf)x^n/(n*n!)

1/ln(t) DT (logarithmic integral) sin(t)/t DT (sine integral) or it's variant, NONEQUIVALENTform: sin(t)/t DT = PI/2 sin(t)/t DT

Ci(x) = CI(x) = -

cos(t)/t DT (cosine integral) or it's variant,NONEQUIVALENT form: COs(t)/t DT = gamma + ln(x) + (COs(t) - 1) / t DT (cosine integral)

Chi(x) = gamma + ln(x) + Shi(x) =

(cosh(t)-1)/t DT (hyperbolic cosine integral)

sinh(t)/t DT (hyperbolic sine integral) e^(-t^2) DT = 2/ PI COs(PI/2 t^2) DT sin(PI/2 t^2) DT ln(t)/(1-t) DT (n=0..inf) (-1)^nx^(2n+1) / ( n! (2n+1) ) (error function)

Erf(x) = 2/PI^(1/2) FresnelC(x) = FresnelS(x) = dilog(x) =

Psi(x) = ln(Gamma(x)) Psi(n,x) = nth derivative of Psi(x) W(x) = inverse of x*e^x L sub n (x) = (e^x/n!)( x^n e^(-x) ) (n) (laguerre polynomial degree n. (n) meaning nth derivative) Zeta(s) = (n=1..inf) 1/n^s

Dirichlet's beta function B(x) =

(n=0..inf) (-1)^n / (2n+1)^x

Evaluating Functions
In our introduction to functions lesson, we related functions to a vending machine. You "input" money and your "output" is candy or chips! We're going to go back to that visual as we evaluate functions. We are going to "input" a number and our "output is the answer!

Let's take a look at a few examples!

Example 1

Did you notice how we just substituted for x and we found our answer? Not too hard, is it? Next you will see how using function notation makes it easier to display your answer if you are asked to evaluate the function more than one time!

Example 2

Do you see how easy it is to keep our answer organized since we have two answers to display? We label them as f(-2) and f(3) to keep them organized!

I hope you are finding this to be pretty easy! You actually already know how to evaluate functions if you can evaluate equations. We are just giving it a different name!