How do you identify the important parts of y = (x – 1)^2 – 16 to graph it?

1 Answer
Sep 26, 2015

Minimum point rArr (1, -16)
y-intercept rArr (0, -15)

Explanation:

From the completed square, you already know that the minimum points are (1, -16)

To find the y-intercept, you need to expand the brackets to get it in the form of ax^2 + bx+c , where c is your y-intercept.

So,

(x-1)(x-1) -16
= x^2-x-x+1-16
= x^2-2x+1-16
= x^2-2x+15

So 15 is your y-intercept.

graph{(x-1)^2-16 [-9.495, 10.505, -17.76, -7.76]}