How do you translate a graph up or down?

1 Answer
Sep 22, 2014

You can translate any function, #y=f(x)# using:

#y=f(x-h)+k# or
#y-k=f(x-h)#

If #h# is positive, the graph will translate to the right.
If #h# is negative, the graph will translate to the left.
If #k# is positive, the graph will translate up.
If #k# is negative, the graph will translate down.

Here is an example:

#f(x)=x^2+2x#

If we want to translate this up 4 units, then we have:

#y=f(x)+4#
#y=x^2+2x+4#
enter image source here

If we have a different example:

#f(x)=1/x#
#y=f(x)+4#
#y=1/x+4#
enter image source here
It still works!