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Section 6.1 Inverse Functions

Problem: Throughout high school physics class, you learned how to find the temperature in degrees Celsius from a given temperature in degress Fahrenheit. You probably also found the Fahrenheit temperature from the Celsius temperature. But, how are these temperature functions related? What about finding the height of a cylinder from its volume? How about finding the angle given its sine? All of these questions pertain to this module's topic, inverse functions. Module Goal: The student will obtain the ability to work with inverse functions using the definition of oneto-one (1:1) in a setting in which the function is not necessarily given explicitly and be able to perform known calculus operations on inverse functions such as finding the derivative of an inverse function at a point. Definition 1: A function is called one-to-one if whenever .

In other words, for every

value in the domain of the function

, there is one and only one

value. In

graphical terms, if you draw a horizontal line across the graph of then is not one-to-one.

and it touches it in two or more places,

Examples of one-to-one functions:

(Notice that many odd functions are one-to-one!) Examples of functions not one-to-one:

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Definition 2: Let inverse function of

be a one-to-one function with domain with domain and range and is defined by

and range

. Then .

is the

Noteworthy Notes:

for every

and

for every

These are called the cancellation equations. How to find the inverse of a one-to-one function: 1. Write .

2. Solve the equation for

in terms of

3. Now interchange the

and

to get the function

Example:

Let

(Note that the range of

is

1.

2.

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3.

Graphically speaking, you can obtain

by flipping the graph of

across the line

The Calculus of Inverse Functions

Theorem 1: If

is one-to-one and continuous on a defined interval, then

is continuous.

Theorem 2: If

is a one-to-one and differentiable function with an inverse function , then the inverse function is differentiable at and

and

Example:

Let

. We know from the previous example that . Next, note that . Finally, note that and, directly,

So,
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Now try some of the odd numbered problems from this section, check your answers in Appendix I and then proceed to Assignment 6.1.

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