Education Technology


Function Transformations

Activity Overview

A collection of data from bouncing balls to pendulum swings and discharging capacitors are included in this activity for students to model. In each example the original function is presented and students determine the appropriate transformations to f(x) so that it models the collected data.

Objectives

The aim of this activity is to help students understand the use of functional notation and how to apply transformations using this notation.

Vocabulary

  • Transformation
  • Translation
  • Dilation
  • Reflection

About the Lesson

Watch Activity Tutorial

Transformations of functions apply to a whole family of curves whether they are polynomials, trigonometric or exponential. This activity provides students with a selection of data collected from bouncing balls to pendulums and capacitors. Students are provided with the appropriate primitive function and simply apply appropriate transformations using functional notation to match the data.