Lecture 2: Domain and range of functions

Victoria LEBED, lebed@maths.tcd.ie

MA1S11A: Calculus with Applications for Scientists

October 3, 2017
Yesterday we saw examples of functions
X defined on certain parts of the real line R only—e.g., the square root
√
x 7→ x, defined for x > 0;
X defined by different formulas on different parts of R—e.g., the absolute
value x 7→ |x|: 
x, x > 0,
|x| =
−x, x < 0.

These parts are typically intervals, rays, and various combinations thereof.
Today we will
X learn how to handle these intervals, rays, etc. mathematically (this will
be our tools),
X discuss how to determine for which values of the independent variable
a function is defined, and what values it takes (this is where we will
apply our tools).
 1 Reminder: intervals
[a, b] stands for the closed interval consisting of all x for which a 6 x 6 b.
Mathematically, this can be written in a very efficient way:
[a, b] = { x ∈ R | a 6 x 6 b }.
Read: [a, b] is the set of all real values x such that a 6 x 6 b holds.
A more “human” reading: [a, b] is the set of all real x between a and b.

Similarly, the open interval (a, b) is defined by

(a, b) = { x ∈ R | a < x < b }.
You might meet an alternative notation ]a, b[ for the open interval (a, b).

Half-closed intervals:
[a, b) = { x ∈ R | a 6 x < b },
(a, b] = { x ∈ R | a < x 6 b }.
 2 Reminder: rays
An open end of an interval may assume infinite values, in which case an
interval becomes a ray: for example,
[a, +∞) = { x ∈ R | a 6 x },
is closed ray, while
(−∞, b) = { x ∈ R | x < b },
is an open ray.
(−∞, +∞) is a symbol notation for the whole real line R.
Intervals and rays are the simplest parts of R. More complicated parts are
obtained from these “building blocks” using operations: intersection, union,
difference.
 3 Operations on intervals: example
Alice and Bob are flatmates. Yesterday Alice was at home from 6am to
midday, and Bob from 1am to 7am.

Question 1. When were both of them at home?

Solution. Consider the intervals A = [6, 12], and B = [1, 7]. The question
asks to compute the intersection of these time intervals:
A ∩ B = [6, 12] ∩ [1, 7] = [6, 7].
So, Alice and Bob were both at home from 6am to 7am.

Question 2. When was at least one of them at home?

Solution. We need to compute the union of our time intervals:
A ∪ B = [6, 12] ∪ [1, 7] = [1, 12].
 3 Operations on intervals: example
Alice and Bob are flatmates. Yesterday Alice was at home from 6am to
midday, and Bob from 1am to 7am.

Question 3. When was none one of them at home?

Solution. We will use one more interval D = [0, 24], encoding the whole day
(yesterday). We need to compute the difference of time intervals:
D \ (A ∪ B) = [0, 24] \ [1, 12] = [0, 1] ∪ [12, 24].
Unlike in the two first questions, we obtained a part of R which is
disconnected, and thus is neither an interval nor a ray. These are the more
complicated parts of R referred to above.
 4 Operations on intervals: definitions
Let A and B be two parts of R (e.g., intervals or rays).
The intersection of A and B consists of those points that belong to both A
and B:
A∩B = { x ∈ R | x ∈ A and x ∈ B }.

The union of A and B consists of those points that belong either to A or

else to B:
A∪B = { x ∈ R | x ∈ A or x ∈ B }.
B This includes points belonging to both A and B. In maths, “or” is
inclusive!
The difference of A and B consists of those points that belong to A but not
to B:
A\B = { x ∈ R | x ∈ A and x ∈ / B }.

Remark. Similar definitions work for any sets.

 5 Domain of a function
√
The square root function x 7→ x is an example of a function which is only
defined for some values of the independent variable x, in this case for x > 0.
Another example is the function x 7→ 1/x, in which case all values of x
except for x = 0 are allowed.
Definition. The domain of a function f consists of all values of x for which
the value f(x) is defined.
For a function defined by a table, its domain consists of numbers in the first
row:
x 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4
y 0 1.25 3 5.25 8 11.25 15
 5 Domain of a function
For a function defined by a graph, its domain consists of the values for
which the corresponding vertical line meets the graph:
y
3
2
1
x
−3 −2 −1 1 2 3
−1
−2
−3
In other words, the domain is the projection of the graph on the x-axis.
Question. What is the domain of the function defined by the graph above?
Answer. [−1.5, 1.5].
 6 Natural domain of a function
√
With the expressions like x or 1/x, we saw how the domain of a function
may be restricted by a formula from which we compute its values.

Definition. The natural domain of a function f defined by a formula

consists of all values of x for which f(x) has a well defined real value.

Example 1. The natural domain of f(x) = x3 consists of all real numbers

(−∞, ∞), since for each real x its cube is a well defined real number.
 7 Natural domain: examples
1
Example 2. The natural domain of f(x) = (x−1)(x−3) consists of all real
numbers except for x = 1 and x = 3, since for those numbers division by
zero occurs.
One can write the answer as either
{ x ∈ R | x 6= 1 and x 6= 3 },
or, using the union operation,
(−∞, 1) ∪ (1, 3) ∪ (3, +∞).

sin x
Example 3. The natural domain of f(x) = tan x = cos x consists of all
numbers except for those where cos x = 0. The cosine vanishes precisely at
odd multiples of π/2, so the natural domain of tan is
{ x ∈ R | x 6= ±π/2, ±3π/2, ±5π/2, . . . }
= . . . ∪ (−3π/2, −π/2) ∪ (−π/2, π/2) ∪ (π/2, 3π/2) ∪ (3π/2, 5π/2) ∪ . . . .
 7 Natural domain: examples
√
Example 4. The natural domain of f(x) = x2 − 5x + 6 consists of all
numbers x for which x2 − 5x + 6 > 0 (in order for the square root to
assume a real value). Since x2 − 5x + 6 = (x − 2)(x
√
− 3) (we use the
5± 52 −4·6·1
formula for roots of a quadratic equation, x = 2 ), we would like
to find x for which (x − 2)(x − 3) > 0.

7 y
6
5
4
3
2
1
x
−1
−1 1 2 3 4

Thus, the natural domain of f is (−∞, 2] ∪ [3, +∞).

 7 Natural domain: examples
2
Example 5. The natural domain of f(x) = x −5x+6x−2 consists of all x 6= 2
since the only reason for the value of f to be undefined in this case is where
division by zero occurs.
However, since x2 − 5x + 6 = (x − 2)(x − 3), algebraically this expression
can be simplified to x − 3. The latter expression is defined for x = 2 as well.
B When performing algebraic operations, it is important to keep track of
original domains!
In this particular case we must write
f(x) = x − 3 for x 6= 2
(and f(x) is undefined for x = 2). Thus we do not lose information on the
original domain. y
2
1
x
−1 bc
1 2 3 4 5
−2
−3
 8 Natural domain: algorithm
After all the examples above, the following algorithm for describing the
natural domain of a basic function defined by a formula should appear
intuitive to you:
p p
1) Whenever you see an expression of type g(x) (or 2n g(x) with n ∈ N),
determine all x for which g(x) > 0.
h(x)
2) Whenever you see an expression of type g(x) , determine all x for which
g(x) 6= 0.
sin(x) cos(x)
B Beware of the functions tan(x) = cos(x) and cot(x) = sin(x) , which
are implicit fractions!
3) Determine the intersection of all the parts of R obtained in the previous
points.
 9 Range of a function
Let us look at the two functions we already examined when talking about
√
domains: f(x) = 1/x and f(x) = x. What values do those functions
assume for the values of x ranging over their natural domains?
The first function f(x) = 1/x assumes all nonzero values. Indeed, to attain
the value v 6= 0, we should just observe that 1/(1/v) = v.
√
The second function f(x) = x assumes all nonnegative values. Indeed, to
attain
√ the value v > 0, we should just observe that for such values we have
2
v = v.
Definition. The range of a function f consists of all values f(x) it assumes
when x ranges over its domain.
For a function defined by a table, its range consists of numbers in the
second row:

x 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4

y 0 1.25 3 5.25 8 11.25 15
 9 Range of a function
Definition. The range of a function f consists of all values f(x) it assumes
when x ranges over its domain.
For a function defined by a graph, its range is the projection of its graph on
the y-axis:
y
3
2
1
x
−3 −2 −1 1 2 3
−1
−2
−3
The range of this function is [0, 1.5].
 9 Range of a function
Definition. The range of a function f consists of all values f(x) it assumes
when x ranges over its domain.
√
Example 1. The range of f(x) = 2 + x − 1 is [2, +∞).
To see that, we observe that the natural domain of this function is [1, +∞)
since we request that the expression from which we extract the square root
is non-negative.
Now, as x increases from 1 to +∞,
X x − 1 varies in [0, +∞),
√
X x − 1 varies in [0, +∞),
√
X and 2 + x − 1 varies in [2, +∞).
 9 Range of a function
x+1
Example 2. The range of f(x) = x−1 is harder to guess, so we shall approach
it directly from the definition. We would like to find the values of a for
x+1
which the equation x−1 = a has solutions. Solving it, we get
x + 1 = ax − a,
a + 1 = ax − x = x(a − 1),
a+1
x= .
a−1
From x = a+1
a−1 , we see that all a ∈ R except for a = 1 are in the natural
range. So, the natural range is (−∞, 1) ∪ (1, +∞).
x+1
B We should be careful when going from x−1 = a to x + 1 = a(x − 1)
because we change the natural domain. However, x = 1 is not a solution to
x + 1 = a(x − 1) anyway.