Pure Maths - Chapter 4

Graphs & Transformations

Chapter Overview
There are a few new bits and pieces since GCSE!

1a:: Cubic Graphs 1b:: Quartic Graphs 1c:: Reciprocal Graphs

Sketch the graph with Sketch the graph with Sketch the graph with
equation: equation: equation

NEW! to A Level 2017+ NEW! to A Level 2017+

The old A Level only included In addition to graphs of the form ,
cubic graphs, not quartics. you now need to recognise the
sketch of

2:: Points of Intersection 3:: Graph Transformations

Sketch the curves and on the If , sketch the graph of ,
same axes. Using your sketch, indicating any intercepts with
state, with a reason, the the axes.
number of real solutions to
the equation . NEW! since GCSE
The GCSE 2015+ syllabus included
translations of graphs but not stretches.
Polynomial Graphs
In Chapter 2 we briefly saw that a polynomial expression is of the form:

where are constants (which could be 0).

The order of a polynomial is its highest power.

These are covered in

Order Name Chapter 5.
0 Constant (e.g. “4”)
Chapter 2 explored
1 ?
Linear (e.g. “”)
the graphs for these.
2 ? “”)
Quadratic (e.g.
3 Cubic ? We will cover
4 Quartic ? these now.
5 Quintic ? While these are technically
beyond the A Level syllabus,
we will look at how to sketch
polynomials in general.
 Polynomial Graphs
What property connects the order of
the polynomial and the shape?
Order: The number of ‘turns’ is one less than
the order, e.g. a cubic has 2 ‘turns’, a
quartic 3 ‘turns’. Bro Note: …Actually this is not strictly true,
2
e.g. consider , which has a U shape. But this
is because multiple turns are being squashed
into a single point.

In Chapter 2 how did we tell what way up

a quadratic is, and why does this work?

For a quadratic , i.f. , we had a ‘valley’

3 shape. This is because if was a large
positive value, would be large and
positive, thus the graph’s value tends
towards infinity.

We would write:
“As ” where “” means “tends towards”.
4
 Polynomial Graphs
e.g. If , try a large positive value like . We can see we’d get a large positive
value. Thus as ,

Resulting Resulting
Equation If Shape If Shape

2 As As
𝑦 =𝑎 𝑥 +𝑏𝑥 +𝑐 As As

As As
As As

4 3
𝑦=𝑎 𝑥 +𝑏 𝑥
As As
As As

As
5 4
𝑦 =𝑎 𝑥 +𝑏 𝑥 + … As
As
As

If , what therefore can we say about the shape if:

?
• The order is odd: It goes uphill (from left to right) (And we have the
opposite if )
• The order is even: The tails go upwards. ?
 Cubics
Sketch the curve with equation Sketch the curve with equation

Features you must consider:

Fro Tip: No need to Shape? term is positive so ‘uphill’
Shape? If we expanded, term would expand out the shape.
whole thing. Just
be negative, so ‘downhill’ mentally consider
shape. the terms Roots?
multiplied together.
However as root of 0 is repeated
Roots? If , This is sort of because
(because the factor of appears
the curve crosses at 0
then immediately twice), the curve touches at .
-intercept? If crosses at 0 again!

-intercept? If
𝑦 𝑦

𝑥 𝑥
-1 1 2 1
-2
Fro Tip: It’s incredibly
easy to forget to write in
one of the intercepts. So
don’t!
 Cubics
Sketch the curve with equation Sketch the curve with equation

Shape? Downhill. Shape? Uphill.

Roots? Roots?
Curve crosses as 2, but But root is triple repeated.
touches at -1 (again, We have a point of
because of repeated root) inflection at .
-intercept? 2 -intercept? -64

Fro Exam Notes: The term ‘point of

𝑦 𝑦 inflection’ has been removed from the
new A Level syllabus (bad idea!!).
2 You might be able to see we get this shape
at because as the root is triple repeated,
the curve crosses at 4, then crosses again,
𝑥 𝑥
then crosses again, hence ending up in the
-1 2 4
same direction and the line becoming
momentarily horizontal.
A point of inflection is where the curve
-64 goes from ‘convex’ to ‘concave’ (or vice
versa), i.e. curves in one direction before
and curves in another direction after. You
might have encountered these terms in
Physics.
 Cubics with Limited Roots
Sketch the curve with equation

Shape? Uphill.
Roots? Either (giving root of -1) or .
This does not have any solutions as the discriminant is -3.
Thus -1 is the only root.

-intercept? 1

We don’t have enough information to

determine the exact shape. It could for
𝑦 example have been:
However, in Chapter 12,
𝑦 we’ll be able to work
1 turning points using
‘differentiation’, and
-1
𝑥 hence conclude that it
1 doesn’t have any!

-1 𝑥
Finding the equation yourself

Figure 1 shows a sketch of the curve with equation .

The curve passes through the point (–1, 0) and touches the -axis at the point (2, 0).
The curve has a maximum at the point (0, 4).
The equation of the curve can be written in the form.

where , and are integers.

(a) Calculate the values of .

If it crosses at we must have .

If it touches at we must have
Test Your Understanding
3 A curve has this shape, touches the
1 Sketch the curve with equation axis at 3 and crosses the axis at -2.
Give a suitable equation for this
graph.
𝑦
? ) ( 𝑥 +2 )
𝑦 =( 𝑥 − 3
2

N Sketch the curve with equation

𝑥
3

Point of Touches Crosses

inflection -axis -axis

2 Sketch the curve with equation

𝑥
-2 (I took this question from my Riemann Zeta Club materials:
-8 www.drfrostmaths.com/rzc )
[end shameless plug]
Exercise 4A
Pearson Pure Mathematics Year 1/AS
Pages 62-63

Extension 2 A sketch of the graph appears on

Which one of the following which of the following axis?
1
equations could possibly have the
graph given below?

(a) (b)

A) (c) (d)
B)
C)
Cubics can sometimes be factorised by pairing
D)
the terms: (c)
Solution: D
Recap

If we sketched what happens on the -axis at:

: The line crosses the axis.

𝑎 𝑥

: The line touches the axis.

𝑏 𝑥

: Point of inflection on the axis.

𝑐 𝑥
Quartics
If you understand the principle of sketching polynomials in general, then sketching
quartics shouldn’t feel like anything new.
Recall that if the term is positive, the ‘tails’ both go upwards, otherwise downwards.

Sketch the curve with equation Sketch the curve with equation

Shape: ?
Tails upwards Shape: ?
Tails downwards
Roots: -1, 0, 2,?3 Roots: -1, 2, 3
?
-intercept: 0 ? 2 is repeated.
-intercept: ?
𝑦
𝑦
12

𝑥
-1 2 3 𝑥
-1 2 3
Quartics
Sketch the curve with equation Sketch the curve with equation

2 is a quadruple repeated root!

-1 root only appears once so line
Because the line effectively crosses the
crosses at
axis 4 times all at -2, it ends up in the
+1 root triple repeated so point of
opposite direction, and hence looks like
inflection at
a ‘touch’ point.

𝑦
𝑦
16

𝑥
2
𝑥
-1 1
-1
Test Your Understanding
Sketch the curve with equation Sketch the curve with equation

𝑦 𝑦
27

𝑥 𝑥
-1 1 -1 3
Exercise 4B
Pearson Pure Mathematics Year 1/AS
Pages 65-66

Extension
1 a. Sketch
b. For what values of does the equation have the following number of distinct roots
(i) 0, (ii) 1, (iii) 2, (iv) 3, (v) 4.

a) By factorising, . This is a quartic, where is b) By changing , we shift the

always positive, and has repeated roots at : graph up and down. Then we
can see that:

i) ?
0 roots: When
ii) ?
1 root: Not possible.
iii) 2 roots: When
iv) 3 roots: ?
v) 4 roots: ?
?
GCSE RECAP :: Reciprocal Graphs
Sketch Sketch

𝑦 𝑦 Fro Note: The scaling caused by the 3

isn’t observable for this graph in
isolation because the axes have no
scale. This will only be observation for
multiple graphs on the same axes.

𝑥 𝑥

Notice the distance between this line and the -axis

(i.e. the line ) gradually decreases as the lines go off
towards infinity. The line is known as an asymptote
of the graph.

! An asymptote is a line Asymptotes of :

which the graph approaches
but never reaches.
?
Reciprocal Graphs
This is new to
the A Level 2017
Sketch syllabus.
Sketch

𝑦 𝑦

𝑥 𝑥

Hint: Note that anything squared will

always be at least 0.
Reciprocal Graphs
On the same axes, sketch and

𝑦 3
𝑦=
𝑥
The value for will be 3 times
greater than

1𝑥
𝑦=
𝑥
Exercise 4C
Pearson Pure Mathematics Year 1/AS
Page 67
Points of Intersection
In the previous chapter we saw why the points of intersection of two graphs gave
the solutions to the simultaneous equations corresponding to these graphs.

If and , then the values of the points of intersection can be found when .

Example: On the same diagram sketch the curves with equations and . Find the
coordinates of their points of intersection.

𝑦
Froflections: Cubics
or or generally have 3
Substituting these values back solutions. And this
𝟐 seems good news as
𝒚 =𝒙 ( 𝟏 − 𝒙 ) 𝟑) into either equation, we obtain we have 3 points of

𝒙 − points: intersection.

𝒙 (
𝑥
𝒚=
Fro Tip: A classic
1 3 mistake is to divide by
to get . NEVER divide
an equation by a
variable, because you
lose a solution. Always
factorise.
Further example involving unknown constants
On the same diagram sketch the curves with equations and , where are positive
constants. State, giving a reason, the number of real solutions to the equation

If the points of intersection are given by:

𝑦

)
−𝒂
𝟑𝒙
𝒙 𝟐( then clearly:
𝒚= 𝒃
𝒙 There are 2 points of intersection, thus 2
𝒚=

solutions to this equation.

𝑥
𝑎
3

Fro Note: Note that the question is

asking for the number of solutions,
not the solutions themselves. We’d
If then or have to solve a quartic, with roots in
We were told that is positive, thus this terms of and . While there is a
latter root is positive. ‘quartic formula’ (like the quadratic
formula), it is absolutely horrific.
Test Your Understanding
On the same diagram sketch the curves with equations and , and hence find
the coordinates of any points of intersection.

𝑦 Looking at the diagram we expect that will be

the only point of intersection (as the cubic will
rise more rapidly than the quadratic). But we
𝒚 =𝒙 ( 𝒙 − 𝟐 )
𝟐 need to show this algebraically.

2 4
𝑥 Thus giving .
But the discriminant of is -7, thus there are no
𝒚 =𝒙 ( 𝒙 − 𝟒 ) further solutions to this equation.

Hint: Remember you can use

the discriminant to reason
about the number of
solutions of a quadratic.
 Exercise 4D
The values of for which the line intersects the
Pearson Pure Mathematics 2
parabola are precisely
Year 1/AS, Pages 69-71 A) B)
C) or D)
Equating:
Extension
Discriminant:
1 The equation
A) has as a solution;
B) has no real solutions;
C) has an odd number of real solutions;
D) has twenty real solutions.

To sketch , sketch ,
then realise that as 3 Which of the following sketches is a graph
is always at least 1, of ?
raising it to a positive
power (>1) makes it
go up more steeply.
we can sketch by
completing the
square, where we
realise it is always i.e.
negative.
The answer is B. Answer is (b).
 Transformations of Functions
Suppose Then ?

Sketch : Sketch
We know has a root of -
𝑦 where the graph touche
y

)2
𝑥2

+2
𝑦=

(𝑥
𝑦=
x 𝑥
-2

The graph has been translated

What do you notice about the relationship between by , i.e. we have subtracted 2
the graphs of and ? ?
from each value.
 Transformations of Functions
This is all you need to remember when considering how transforming your
function transforms your graph...

!
Affects which axis? What we expect or opposite?
Change inside 𝑥
? Opposite ?
Change outside 𝑦
? ?
What we expect

Therefore...

𝑦 = 𝑓 ( 𝑥 −3 ) Translation by ?

𝑦 = 𝑓 ( 𝑥) + 4 Translation by ?
𝑦 = 𝑓 (5 𝑥) Stretch in -direction? by scale factor
𝑦 =2 𝑓 ( 𝑥 ) Stretch in -direction? by scale factor 2
Sketching transformed graphs
Sketch Sketch

If , the +3 is ‘outside’ the squared This looks like a reciprocal function .

function, so translation of . The change of +1 is inside the reciprocal
Imagine a sketch of and then do the function, so we have a translation to the
translation, ensuring you adjust any left by 1.
intercepts with the axes.
𝑦 The transformation
might result in new

1
intercepts or roots. You

−
y can find these in the

𝑥=
usual way. Do not
+3

forget them!
𝑥2

2
𝑥
𝑦=

3 The asymptotes were

previously and . The
latter is unaffected but
x the former is now .

Draw asymptotes using a dotted

line and write its equation on it.
More Examples
Sketch . On the same axes, sketch , Sketch . On the same axes, sketch the graph
where . with equation

The input has been replaced with , i.e. a change The input has been doubled to , again a change
inside the function. We translate right by . The inside the function, so we do the opposite and
significance of is that the original root of -2 will halve the values.
now be positive. Ensure that 0 remains 0 and you halve any roots.
𝑦 𝑦

)
𝑎 +2
𝑥−
2)

)
𝑥 −4
𝑥+

4)
𝑎) (

𝑥−
𝑥(

𝑥) ( 2
(𝑥−
𝑦=

𝑥(
𝑦= 2
𝑦=( 2 2
− 𝑎 ( −𝑎+2 )
𝑦=

-2 𝑎− 2 𝑎 𝑥 𝑥
2 4

Note that our

intercepts are in
terms of .
Reflections of Graphs
If , sketch and on the same axes.

You did this at GCSE. The minus is outside the

function, so affects the output, i.e. the value.
The values are negated, resulting in a reflection
in the -axis.

(𝑥
)
𝑓
=
𝑦

𝒚 =− 𝒇 ( 𝒙 )

-2
𝑥
Test Your Understanding
If , sketch and on the same axes. Sketch the graph of , ensuring you
indicate any intercepts with the axes.

𝑦
𝑦 )
𝒇 (𝒙

𝑦 =1
(3 𝑥
𝒚=

)
𝑓
=
𝑦

-3 -1 2 6 𝑥 -2 𝑥

-2 To get this new root:

Effect of transformation on specific points
Sometimes you will not be given the original function, but will be given a
sketch with specific points and features you need to transform.
Where would each of these points end up?

? ? ?
? ? ?
? ? ?
? ? ?
? ? ?
? ? ?
? ? ?
Test Your Understanding