The composition of two functions, \(F\) and \(G\), is a new function symbolized by \(F \circ G\). A hollow circle hovers between the two function names.
Given \(a\) in the domain of \(G\), such that \(G(a)\) is in the domain of \(F\), \((F \circ G)(a)\) is defined to be \(F(G(a))\).
If \(Dom_G\) and \(Dom_F\) represent the domains of \(G\) and \(F\) respectively, the induced or implied domain of \(F \circ G\) is
The order matters. Generally speaking, \(F \circ G \ne G \circ F\). Composition is not commutative.
Linear Composition
In this section, we will explore the composition of linear functions.
Let \(A(x) = a_1 \cdot x + a_0\) be a linear function with \(\mathbb {R}\) as its domain.
Let \(B(w) = b_1 \cdot w + b_0\) be a linear function with \(\mathbb {R}\) as its domain.
Then \(A \circ B\) is a new function. What is its formula?
To keep everything separate, let’s use \(v\) as the variable for the formula of \(A \circ B\).
\begin{align*} (A \circ B)(v) & = A(B(v)) \\ & = A(b_1 \cdot v + b_0) \\ & = a_1 \cdot (b_1 \cdot v + b_0) + a_0 \\ & = a_1 \cdot b_1 \cdot v + a_1 \cdot b_0 + a_0 \\ & = (a_1 \cdot b_1) v + (a_1 \cdot b_0 + a_0) \end{align*}
\(\blacktriangleright \) The composition of two linear functions is again a linear function.
Let \(G(y) = 4 y + 3\) be a linear function with \(\mathbb {R}\) as its domain.
Let \(H(t) = 3 t -5\) be a linear function with \(\mathbb {R}\) as its domain.
Define two new functions, \(U(x)\) and \(V(w)\), as compositions by
\(U(x) = (G \circ H)(x) = G(H(x)) = 4 \left (\answer {3 x - 5}\right ) + 3 = 12 x -17\)
\(V(w) = (H \circ G)(w) =H(G(w)) = 3 \left (\answer {4 w + 3}\right ) - 5 = 12 w + 4\)
Two different functions. Both are linear functions. The constant rate-of-change is \(12\) for
both.
Their graphs would be parallel lines.
Let \(k(m) = 2 m + 1\) be a linear function with \(\mathbb {R}\) as its domain.
Let \(h(n)\) be a linear function with \(\mathbb {R}\) as its domain.
Let \(r(v) = (k \circ h)(v) = k(h(v)) = 3 v - 2\)
\(\blacktriangleright \) Determine a formula for \(h(n)\).
\(k\) is linear and the composition, \(r\), is linear. A good guess is that \(h\) is linear.
In that case, the rates-of-change would multiply and \(h\) would start off looking like \(h(n) = \frac {3}{2} n + n_0\), for some \(n_0\).
So, far we have
This is the composition \((k \circ h)(v)\), which we know equals \(3 v - 2\). Therefore, we must have
We need \(2 n_0 + 1 = -2\). Therefore, \(n_0 = \answer {-\frac {3}{2}}\).
We have \(h(n) = \frac {3}{2} n - \frac {3}{2}\)
Let \(k(m) = 2 m + 1\) be a linear function with \(R\) as its domain.
Let \(h(n)\) be a linear function with \(R\) as its domain.
Let \(r(v) = (h \circ k)(v) = h(k(v)) = 3 v - 2\)
\(\blacktriangleright \) Determine a formula for \(h(n)\).
\(k\) is linear and the composition, \(r\), is linear. A good guess is that \(h\) is linear.
In that case the rates-of-change would mulitply and \(h\) would start off looking like \(h(n) = \frac {3}{2} n + n_0\), for some \(n_0\).
So, far we have
This is the composition \((h \circ k)(v)\), which we also know equals \(3 v - 2\). Therefore, we must have
We need \(\frac {3}{2} + n_0 = -2\). Therefore, \(n_0 = \answer {-\frac {7}{2}}\).
We have \(h(n) = \frac {3}{2} n - \frac {7}{2}\)
Restricted Domains
Let’s restrict the domains of our linear functions.
Graph of \(y = T(v)\).
Let’s create the composition \(T \circ g = T(g)\).
This means the range of \(g\) needs to be inside the domain of \(T\). But as the chart below shows, there are numbers in the range of \(g\) that are not in the domain of \(T\).
For instance, \(0\) is in the range of \(g\), but not in the domain of \(T\).
Therefore, we need to remove the numbers in the domain of \(g\), whose function value is \(0\).
Like, \(-\frac {32}{7}\) is in the domain of \(g\), and \(g\left (-\frac {32}{7}\right ) = 0\). So, \(-\frac {32}{7}\) has to be removed from the domain of \(g\).
There are more numbers in the domain of \(g\), where the function value of \(g\) is not in
the domain of \(T\). We need to remove these numbers from the domain of \(T \circ g\).
What part of the range of \(g\) can we use?
It looks like we can use the interval \(\left [ \answer {1}, \answer {6} \right )\). \(6\) is not included, so we’ll have to keep this in mind as we investigate the domain of \(g\).
The range of \(g\) needs to be restricted to \([1, 6)\). Therefore we need to restrict the domain of \(g\), so that the range is just \([1, 6)\). We need to find the preimages of \(6\) and \(1\) in the domain of \(g\).
- \(g(x) = \frac {7}{4}x-8 = 6\)
- \(\frac {7}{4}x = \answer {14}\)
- \(x = \frac {4}{7} \cdot 14 = \answer {8}\)
The preimage of \(6\) is \(8\). The domain of \(g\) is \((2,8)\). \(8\) is an endpoint of the interval that is already excluded.
Now, for the preimage of \(1\).
- \(g(x) = \frac {7}{4}x-8 = 1\)
- \(\frac {7}{4}x = 9\)
- \(x = \frac {4}{7} \cdot 9 = \frac {36}{7} \approx 5.14\)
\(\frac {36}{7}\) is inside \((2,8)\).
We need to restrict the domain of \(g\) to \(\left [ \answer {\frac {36}{7}}, \answer {8} \right )\)
With this restricted domain, the range of \(g\) will be \([1, 6)\), which is the biggest piece of the domain of \(T\) that we can get from values of \(g\).
We now have a domain for our composition: \(Dom_{T \circ g} = \left [\frac {36}{7}, 8\right )\)
Now we need to take our restricted domain of \(T\), \([1, 6)\), and determine the restricted range.
- \(T(1) = -1+3 = 2\), included
- \(T(6) = -6+3 = -3\), excluded
What do we have?
Our composition has a formula, let’s use \(c\) for its variable.
\((T \circ g)(c) = -\left (\frac {7}{4}c - 8\right ) + 3 = -\frac {7}{4}c + 11\)
It’s domain is \(\left [ \answer {\frac {36}{7}}, \answer {8} \right )\).
It’s range is \(\left ( \answer {-3}, \answer {2} \right ]\).
Graph of \(y = T(g(c))\).
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more examples can be found by following this link
More Examples of Piecewise Composition