How to Perform Operations of Functions

Description

Step-by-step video tutorial  on how to solve various operations of functions. Several example problems are provided. Knowledge of functions and operations of functions are required for grade-school algebra.

Overview

I’m sure you are familiar with the normal form of a function – f(x) = (equation or number). If you have a second one, it will be expressed as g(x) = (equation or number). But what happens if you are told to combine the functions through an operation? You follow these basic patterns:

(f + g)(x) = f(x) + g(x)

(f – g)(x) = f(x) – g(x)

(f * g)(x) = f(x) * g(x)

(f / g)(x) = f(x) / g(x)

These are all very basic, and very easy to solve. There is one other pattern, which can seem rather confusing. This pattern is (f o g)(x) = f[g(x)]. The circle means “of”, so you would read that to be “f of g of x”. This means that for every x you see in the f function, you replace it with the entire g function.

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