Section 1.3 Function Revew III: Function Composition S.

Childress

Goal: To understand how to feed one function to another and to recall important facts about
inverse functions.

Composition

Motivation

Example 1: Leaving on a Jet Plane

Imagine an airplane sitting on a runway. The distance that the plane can fly depends on the
amount of jet fuel in fuel tank of the plane. Let’s turn this into a mathematical statement. Let’s
represent the distance the plane can fly as a function d. Further, let’s represent the amount of
fuel in the tank as f . Then d is a function on f like so:

Now, imagine that the plane taxis on the runway and then takes off. When the plane idles its
engines, lifts-off, accelerates, or turns sharply: fuel is burned. Over the course of the flight, we
see that the amount of depends on how much time the plane has spent moving.
Let’s represent this dependence as a function that takes in time (since engines turned on) t and
produces – the amount of fuel left in the tank.

So we can actually model an answer to the question: “How far could an airplane in flight go t
minutes after the plane turned on its engines?” The answer is the expression: .
In other words, we can produce distance using and in turn
using time. This creates a compound function machine:

In order to answer the question, we had to take the output of one function and feed it as input
into another.

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Example 2: Going Around in Circles

Recall that points on the unit circle x2 + y 2 = 1 can be thought of as pairs (x, y), where both x
and y depend on θ, the angle in standard position whose terminal ray intersects the point (x, y).
Like so:

x2 + y 2 = 1 Now, the position of this point depends on the

angle θ. But what if the angle θ itself depended
on time? Suppose that θ started at 0 but in-
creases at a constant rate of π/4 rad/s. Then
θ after t seconds

θ(t) =

This would mean that after t seconds, the point on the unit circle would be at (cos(θ(t)), sin(θ(t))),
so for this example:

Point on Circle after t seconds = (cos(θ(t)), sin(θ(t)))

Here, we see that the x-coordinate (and the y-coordinate) require us to feed one function into
another in order to compute them.

Composition

Suppose that f and g are functions. The composite function g ◦ f is defined by:

(g ◦ f )(x) =
In pictures:

g ◦ f is pronounced “g of f ,” or “g composed with f ,” or “g circle f .”

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Caution: In the notation (g ◦ f )(x) notice that it is f that acts on x first, followed by g.
So the notation is actually understood right-to-left. The function that is closest to x goes
!

Examples
1. f (x) = x2 + 1 while g(x) = x(x − 1). Find (g ◦ f )(x) and (f ◦ g)(x).

2. Write down a caution regarding (g ◦ f )(x) and (f ◦ g)(x).

π
3. Given f (x) = cos(3x) and g(t) = t − 2, find (f ◦ g)(t) and (g ◦ f )(x).
3

1
4. Given f (x) = x + , find and simplify (f ◦ f )(x).
x

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5. (Table Chase) In the following table are input and output values for two functions f and
g. Find the requested values using the table.

x 1 2 3 a) f (g(2)) =
f (x) 3 1 1
b) (g ◦ g)(3) =
g(x) 2 3 1
c) (g ◦ f )(1) =

6. (Diagram Chase) Use the following graphs to find the requested values:

a) (g ◦ f )(2) =

2
f
1 b) (f ◦ g)(1) =

−2 −1 1 2
−1 g c) (g ◦ f )(0) =

−2

d) (f ◦ f )(−2) =

7. There is nothing stopping us from continuing to feed a functions into more functions.
Indeed:

(h ◦ g ◦ f )(x) = h(g(f (x)))

1 √
For f (x) = 3x , g(x) = , and h(x) = 3 x, find (h ◦ g ◦ f )(x) and (h ◦ f ◦ g)(x).
x+1

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8. Find (f ◦ g ◦ h)(x) if f (x) = |x − 2|, g(x) = cos(x), and h(x) = πx + 7

9. (Identifying Compositions) Given the following functions, express each one as a compo-
sition (g ◦ f )(x) by identifying g and f .

√ 2x
q(x) = x2 + 1, r(x) = , s(t) = sin2 (t)
3 · 2x + 4
Tricks: look for a single expression that shows up in more than one place – this is most
likely f (x). Is there a square-root, a power, or absolute value wrapping an expression? This
is most likely one of the functions.

Terminology

Suppose we are handed a function like:

√
3 x+1
h(x) = √
x−7
We can write this as a composition h = g ◦ f by defining:

f (x) = g(x) =

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It is common to say that f is the function while g is the

function. This terminology comes from the fact that in order to compute (g ◦ f )(x), we must
compute f (x) and put that inside the surrounding function g. Go back and label the above as
inner and outer functions for h(x).

Technical Difficulties: Domains

Let’s take a look at the function machine for g ◦ f again:

Note that in order to produce the final product, x must produce f (x) so x ∈ Dom (f ), but it
must also be the case that f (x) has to produce g(f (x)). This means that in order for x to
produce (g ◦ f )(x), x has two requirements:

• x ∈ Dom (f ), and

• f (x) ∈ .

This gives us the following result:

Domains of Composites

Dom (g ◦ f ) = {x ∈ Dom (f )|f (x) ∈ Dom (g)}

So, how do we find a domain of a composition g ◦ f ? The process requires two steps: 1) Find
the domain of f , and then 2) remove from it those x for which f (x) ∈
/ Dom (g).

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Examples

Find the domains of the indicated compositions.

10. g(x) = x2 + 1 and f (x) = (x − 1)2 . Find the domain of f ◦ g.

11. g(x) = tan(x) and f (x) = π/2(x + 1). Write down an expression for Dom (g ◦ f ).

12. Why can’t we just plug f (x) into g and then find the domain√ there? Why is2 this more
complicated than it seemingly needs to be? Consider f (x) = x and g(x) = x .

a) Compute g(f (x)). If the result was the rule for the obtained function, what would
it’s domain be?

b) Now find the domain of g ◦ f using the approach that we have laid out.

c) What is the first approach missing that the second accounts for?

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Geometric Examples
13. A spherical balloon is being inflated so that its radius increases at a constant rate of 1/4
cm/s. Assuming that the radius of the uninflated balloon started at 0 cm, write and simplify
the volume of the balloon as a function of time.

14. (Time Permitting) The angle θ of a point P on the unit circle is bouncing back and forth
between π/4 and 3π/4 according to:

π π
θ(t) = − cos(πt)
2 4
If t represents time (in seconds), find θ(0), θ(1/2), θ(1) and interpret. Then write down an
expression for the coordinates of P at time t.

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