I wanted to talk about function algebra, which naturally would include a reference to function notation.
So here’s the frustrating thing about writing this blog. I try to include links to other sites that explain a concept, so that I don’t have to reinvent the wheel for my reading audience. But a google gives me these results: useless links that do little more than say “f(x) is the same as y”. That’s not math. That’s test prep. And there’s nothing wrong with test prep, but every one of these sites purport to be math teaching sites, and hey, I’m not a mathematician, but shouldn’t we be explaining what f(x) means?
Someone somewhere is saying “See, this is why we need teachers to be math majors, instead of English majors who get 800 on the GRE quant section. You can’t substitute math understanding that comes with the study of these important principles.” That someone somewhere is wrong. I used to think that in my early days, until I had too many conversations like this:
Me, to AP Calculus teacher WHO MAJORED IN MATH: Hey, what do you tell your kids about function notation?
AP Calculus teacher WHO MAJORED IN MATH: f(x) is the same as y.
Me, nonplused: Well. Yeah. But I mean about why we developed function notation, what it serves that can’t be served by….
AP Calculus teacher WHO MAJORED IN MATH: It’s just notation. Don’t be confused.
Me: I’m not confused. But they serve different purposes, and I’m just trying to be sure I accurately capture…
AP Calculus teacher WHO MAJORED IN MATH: They don’t serve different purposes. It’s just notation f(x) is the same as y.
Me: Ok.
In my experience, very few math teachers WHO ACTUALLY MAJORED IN MATH care about these things either. My beer drinking buddy is an exception (and he’s now department head), and he’s the only math teacher I’ve found so far who was interested in my work on this subject.
Textbooks? McDougall Litell, CPM has a lot of those function machines. But no explanation. Holt does a little better but I didn’t understand that until I understood what I was looking for.
So I spend more time looking for a good link. Otherwise, I have to spend a lot of time figuring out how to explain function notation accurately, or at least inoffensively, so that people reading this blog don’t make me remind them that, for chrissakes, I’m an English major not a mathematician! That takes time. It’s not time I wanted to spend. I don’t want to tell you what function notation is, in a way that will pass expert muster. I want to tell how I build on function notation to teach function algebra. But I can’t do that well without explaining function notation, which I didn’t set out to do. This leads to many blog entries taking much more time than they should. The original intent for my function algebra post was to be just a quick little throwaway.
I began writing this post nearly a month ago, and got stalled looking for a way to characterize the explanation. You may be wondering why I would explain something I don’t understand—but that’s not it, really. I just don’t know what to call it. And that’s fine for teaching, not so much for writing, and so I spend hours trying to figure out the correct query. Which took me, literally, up until today.
Just fifteen minutes ago (as I write this sentence) I finally found the kernel in this discussion on function notation before Euler, in which someone writes:
but [Newton] refers to these as equations, not functions, and admittedly (written the way they are) that is exactly what they are. It seems anything that we would today write as a function, Newton described in words, such as:
HA. I learned something I hadn’t quite understood completely before–a function and an equation are not the same thing. Googling “what is the difference between an equation and a function” led me to the right websites. I realize now that I wasn’t just looking for an explanation of function notation, but rather why and when we use functions vs. equations.
Here’s an explanation that covers what I was trying to say.
So my research paid off. In practice, what I’ve been doing in this lesson is introducing function operations and function notation as a way to overcome a constraint in using equations.
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Sami needs $15 more to buy the new hoodie that he wants. But if Sami skips the hoodie, he needs just three more dollars to buy a ticket to the pizza feed on Friday. If Sami has x dollars, how much money, in terms of x, does Sami need if he wants both the hoodie and the ticket to the pizza feed?
The first thing the kids think is that Sami needs $18 more.
I say okay, Sami has $20. How much does the hoodie cost? $35. How much does the pizza feed cost? $23. How much ….oh. Huh, say the kids. He needs a lot more than $18.
Depending on how goofy I feel, I might get out some fake money. I count out $20, give it to a quiet student. How much more for the hoodie? Count out another $15. Now how about the…Right about then, a student gets it: you need the $20 twice.
So then we go to the board and model the two different equations for each purchase.
y=x+15
y=x+3
So if we are getting both things, what are we doing? Adding, the class choruses.
Ah, now there’s a new wrinkle. The kids have been adding equations for a while now, in systems. So I say, let’s try to add these equations.
2y=2x+18.
Is that right? We test it with $20 and the kids realize that the right side “works” (that is, we get $68) but the left side says we still need to divide by 2, which would be…wrong.
“So what’s happening is that we are running into the limits of an equation. An equation tells us that two expressions occupy the same point on a number line–that is, after all, what “equal” means.”
“But when we use multiple variables in equations, then the equation becomes a relationship between two variables, an if-then. If y=x + 15, then the point (3, 18) is a solution because setting x=3 and y=18 creates an equation that has both sides occupying the same point on the number line. If 3x + 2y=12, then (2,3) is a solution because setting x=2 and y=3, etc.”
But in an equation, the variables are values. So in the Sami case, we can’t treat y as a collection point. We can’t keep track of the dependent variable because it varies, obviously. The y in the first equation has a different value from the y in the second equation. If we wanted to keep them separate, we could use two different variables, like z = x + 15 and y = x + 3. Or we could number the ys: y1 = x+15, y2 = x+3.
“Using the language of functions makes a lot of these constraints disappear.”
“First, logically. Functions are different in a key way from equations: a function is an output. An equation is a relationship between variables. Yes, y=x+3 and f(x)= x+3 yield the same results, which is why we teachers always tell you to remember that ‘y and f(x) are the same thing’. However f(x) isn’t a variable, but an output. So when we add two functions, we’re adding outputs. Remember, too, that a function doesn’t even have to be an equation, like in the cell phone code example.
Then there’s function notation, invented by Euler. Function notation enables unique names, usually a single letter. But it doesn’t have to be. You can get creative with the letter names and the input values.”
“Function notation is just more elegant and efficient, too. Instead of saying ‘if x=7’ you can just say f(3). Once you define the function named ‘f’, anything can be input, even another expression, like f(a+7). And then, instead of saying ‘y=’ and solving for x, write f(x)= 3.”
“So let’s call Sammy’s cash on hand c, and then create a function h for hoodie, and p for pizza feed.
h(c) = c+15
p(c) = c+3
In both cases, c represents the money Sami has, so the input value is the same. But the output value varies based on the function used.”
“Now, this is a small difference. But how many have you been told that f(x) is the same as y?” Bunch of hands raised.
“Yep. And in a lot of ways, it is. But you have to be wondering why, if they’re the same thing, we bother teaching you about function notation.” Lots of nods.
“So as you move on into advanced math, you’ll start to learn other reasons why we sometimes use functions and other times use equations. For now, it’s enough to know that function notation allows us to keep track of our different outcomes.
“Once we can do this, we can actually create an entire math with functions. They can be added, subtracted, multiplied. They have inverse operations.”
“But then why do we use equations?”
“Well, for one thing, functions don’t do systems well. Remember, when we solve systems, we are expecting both the x and the y (and any other variables) to be equal. Functions don’t handle that well. So you’ll see that we switch back and forth between equations and functions as needed.”
When you need to add expressions, functions are great. So now we can add h(c) and g(c).
h(c) + p(c) = (x + 15) + (x + 3) = 2x + 18
“Because we are adding outcomes, and have a unique way of tracking each outcome, we can add them properly. Remember, too, that since a function doesn’t need to be an equation, I can add or subtract outcomes without even having an equation. If a(x) = 9 and b(y) = 17, then b(y) – a(x) is 8, and I don’t have to care if a(x) and b(y) are generated by an expression or a rule or a code or a random happenstance—provided, of course, that random happenstance is only one per input.”
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I know. You’re wondering why I don’t just follow the AP Calculus teacher’s “f(x) is the same as y”. Well, it turns out that function operations are a big part of pre-calc, so they’ll use this later.
In the meantime, I give them some practice with function notation (I stole this at random). Not enough. Kids don’t really know it later. But at least they’re exposed to it.
Then I go on to linear function addition and subtraction. I usually just put problems on the board.
Sample quiz:
Here’s a test question:
And from here I go on to linear function multiplication (aka quadratics) and, eventually, rational expressions (linear function division).
Like teaching congruence with isometries, I can’t argue that using functions to further our work in linear and quadratic equations is better. I find it more…elegant, maybe?
But the execution isn’t quite there. This is the first year I’ve really taught this whole sequence: introducing functions, function addition/subtraction/notation, function multiplication, inverse functions, rational expressions. Writing it up has revealed an obvious improvement. Up to now, my function illustration has been a quick standalone lesson. Then later I introduce the notion of function addition and in doing so, bring up function notation.
This is goofy, now that I look at it. In the future, I’ll introduce functions and then go into function notation. I can spend a day or two on that, quiz that early. Then I can go back into linear equations or inequalities (the placement is flexible) and then bring up function addition and subtraction, with function notation already covered.
You know what’s irritating? The huge effort described at the beginning of this post to figure out how to describe what I was teaching led me to this. The huge effort underwent solely in order to write this post. Which I was griping about. In learning how to describe function notation for my readers, I learned that the proper way to characterize my work is as a difference between functions and equations, and that led to an idea for better sequencing.
This is kind of a placeholder post. Obviously, I’m in flux about this right now. My linear equations unit has been in good shape for a while. This gives me plenty of room to add flourishes, introduce more complicated topics onto a subject the students know well. Meanwhile, linear function multiplication has proven to be a great introduction to quadratics. So now I’m involved in putting it all together.
Next up in this sequence: the post that I really wanted to write, on my quadratics introduction.
Sorry for the slow rate of posts lately. I did five in April, then got lazy.
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