How do you find the asymptotes for f(x) = 5/(x - 7) + 6?

2 Answers
Jun 6, 2015

Given:
y = f(x)=5/(x-7)+6

Subtract 6 from both sides to get:

y-6 = 5/(x-7)

Multiply both sides by (x-7) and divide both sides by (y - 6) to get:

x-7 = 5/(y-6)

Add 7 to both sides to get:

x = 5/(y-6)+7

The asymptotes correspond to the excluded values:

x=7 and y=6

Jun 6, 2015

The one asymptote is when the numerator of the fraction gets closer to 0. This is when x->7, so x=7 is the vertical asymptote.

The other one is when x goes very large. The fraction will become smaller, so the function as a whole will get nearer to 6 without reaching it. So y=6 is the horizontal asymptote.
graph{5/(x-7) +6 [-18.87, 46.08, -9.32, 23.12]}