What is the range of the function f(x)=10-x^2?

1 Answer
Jul 22, 2016

y in (-oo, 10]

Explanation:

The range of a function represents all the possible output values that you can get by plugging in all the possible x values allowed by the function's domain.

In this case, you have no restriction on the domain of the function, meaning that x can take any value in RR.

Now, the square root of a number is always a positive number when working in RR. This means that regardless of the value of x, which can take any negative values or any positive value, including 0, the term x^2 will always be positive.

color(purple)(|bar(ul(color(white)(a/a)color(black)(x^2 >=0 color(white)(a)(AA) x in RR)color(white)(a/a)|)))

This means that the term

10 - x^2

will always be smaller than or equal to 10. It will be smaller than 10 for any x in RR "\"{0} and equal to 10 for x=0.

The range of the function will thus be

color(green)(|bar(ul(color(white)(a/a)color(black)(y in (- oo, 10]color(white)(a/a)|)))

graph{10 - x^2 [-10, 10, -15, 15]}