Here we ‘‘undo’’ functions.

If a function maps every ‘‘input’’ to exactly one ‘‘output,’’ an inverse of that function maps every ‘‘output’’ to exactly one ‘‘input.’’ We need a more formal definition to actually say anything with rigor. These two simple equations are somewhat more subtle than they initially appear.
Let be a function. If the point is on the graph of , what point must be the the graph of ?

Consider the graph of below
PIC
Is invertible at ?
yes no

So far, we’ve only dealt with abstract examples. Let’s see if we can ground this in a real-life context.

We have examined several functions in order to determine their inverse functions, but there is still more to this story. Not every function has an inverse function, so we must learn how to check for this situation.

Let be a function, and imagine that the points and are both on its graph. Could have an inverse function?
yes no

Look again at the last question. If two different inputs for a function have the same output, there is no hope of that function having an inverse function. Why? This is because the inverse function must also be a function, and a function can only have one output for each input. More specifically, we have the next definition.

Which of the following are functions that are also one-to-one?
Mapping words to their meaning in a dictionary. Mapping social security numbers of living people to actual living people. Mapping people to their birthday. Mapping mothers to their children.
Which of the following functions are one to one? Select all that apply.

You may recall that a plot gives as a function of if every vertical line crosses the plot at most once, and we called this the vertical line test. Similarly, a function is one-to-one if every horizontal line crosses the plot at most once, and we call this the horizontal line test.

Below, we give a graph of . While this graph passes the vertical line test, and hence represents as a function of , it does not pass the horizontal line test, so the function is not one-to-one.
PIC

As we have discussed, we can only find an inverse of a function when it is one-to-one. If a function is not one-to-one, but we still want an inverse, we must restrict the domain. Let’s see what this means in our next examples.

Consider the graph of the function below:
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On which of the following intervals is one-to-one?

This idea of restricting the domain is critical for understanding functions like .