Curriculum placement
Algebra 1. This describes the skill, not a learner estimate.
Piecewise and absolute-value functions
Interpret piecewise and absolute-value functions
Problem types
- Graph an absolute value function by placing points
- Evaluate a piecewise function
- Read a piecewise function
Builds on
- Domain and range
- Evaluating a function
- Solving absolute-value equations · Earlier idea
The absolute value function is defined by one rule for inputs at least zero and another rule for negative inputs.
- Reading increase and decrease from a graph · Earlier idea
A graph with rising, flat and falling sections is a function with a different rule on each section.
- Income tax, budgets, and net worth · Useful idea
Tax owed as a function of income uses a different rule on each bracket. That is a piecewise function whose pieces join where the brackets meet.
Leads to
Related skills
- Finding an inverse function · Related idea
A function that is not one-to-one has an inverse only on a restricted piece of its domain.
- Asymptotes, holes, and intercepts · Related idea
A function may act differently on each side of a point, as a rational function approaches different values from the left and right.
- Composition of functions · Shared foundations
- Average rate of change · Shared foundations
- Graphs of quadratic functions · Shared foundations
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