Families of Functions Applet
This applet is designed to let the student work with families of
functions. It graphs a function whose definition can contain
three parameters, a, b, and c. The parameters are controlled by
sliders and have values between -5 and 5.
When looking at a family of functions some questions to address include:
- Is there a general shape for functions in this family?
- Are there special values of parameters that look very
different? (We often have a special case when a parameter is
zero. Sometimes integers or positive numbers behave quite
differently.)
- Can you describe the change that comes from shifting a specific
parameter?