Question

The graph shows the equation x=y^2 use the slider for a to move the vertical line on the graph. According to the vertical line test, is this equation a function why or why not?

Answer 1

Explanation

We are given the equation:

$x=y^2$

We are to use the vertical line test to determine if the equation is a function or not

The vertical line test is a graphical method of determining whether a curve in the plane represents the graph of a function by visually examining the number of intersections of the curve with vertical lines.

The typical example below helps give a better explanation

So for the function

$x=y^2$

We can observe that the equation is not a function because the vertical line cuts the graph in more than one point

This is shown below for values of x = and x =8