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Graphing Overview (page 2 of 3) Sections: Straight lines, Absolute values & quadratics, Polynomials, radicals, rationals, & piecewise This is where you really need to remember to pick negative x's for your T-chart. Otherwise, it is very easy to forget that an absolute value graph is not going to be just a straight line.
...which is the correct answer. For quadratics, you need to plot more than just three points (try a minimum of five!), and you often need to plot negative x's, too. Three points just won't cut it anymore. For instance, suppose y = x2 – 6x + 5. There are any number of things we can do to help us graph this. We can find the intercepts, which in this case are at (1, 0), (5, 0), and (0, 5), or the vertex, which in this case is at (3, –4). But we need to plot quite a few points, in order to get a good graph. Look at what often happens, if someone only uses three points: Copyright © Elizabeth Stapel 2006-2008 All Rights Reserved
But this isn't right; parabolas look like smileys, not straight lines. (And these points don't even line up as a straight line!) Let's plot a few more points:
Much better! Note: A postive quadratic is a smiley, and a negative quadratic is a frowny. (Yeah, it's a dumb way of putting it, but you won't forget it now, will you?) << Previous Top | 1 | 2 | 3 | Return to Index Next >>
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Copyright © 2006-2008 Elizabeth Stapel | About | Terms of Use |
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