[Math] Which $f$ is not a function from $\mathbb{R}$ to $\mathbb{R}$

calculusfunctions

I am having a hard time understanding how to begin solving this task.
Am I suppused to solve the function to solve this task? And if so, how can I determine if $x$ in $f(x)$ is a real number to compare?

There is clearly something here my teacher has missed when explaining this to us, so I was hoping someone could point me in the right direction.

Which $f$ is not a function from $\mathbb{R}$ to $\mathbb{R}$ in the following equations, where $\mathbb{R}$ is the set of real numbers? Explain why they are not a function.

a. $f(x) = \frac{13-x}{\sqrt{x^2-1}}$

b. $f(x) = y$ where $y=\sqrt{x}$

c. $f(x) = x^5-7$

Best Answer

(a) and (b) are not functions from $\mathbb{R}$ to $\mathbb{R}$ because the set of real numbers is not in their domains of definition.

For $a$, you must have $x^2-1>0$ (because otherwise the expression under the square root will not be real or defined) which means that $x>1$ or $x<-1$.

For the second one, you must have that $x \geq 0$ for the similar reason.

The last one is a function indeed. You can check that it's well-defined and it is defined all over $\mathbb{R}$.