Algebra II: Transformations: Dilating Functions

Objectives

• Students will explore how positive and negative leading coefficients in a function can dilate or reflect the graph of the function.
• Students will graph and analyze absolute value functions.
• Students will analyze the structure of a function and its graph to determine the value of a coefficient in the function.

Vocabulary

• vertical dilation
• reflection
• vertical stretch
• vertical shrink

About the Lesson

This lesson involves dilating and reflecting different types of function graphs by grabbing points. As a result, students will understand:

• How multiplying a function by a leading coefficient vertically stretches or shrinks a graph.
• How multiplying by a negative leading coefficient reflects the graph through the x-axis.