How do you find the domain and range of #y = −3x^2 − 3x + 4#?

1 Answer
Mar 26, 2015

This is a quadratic funtion and the domain is all the Real #x#. This means that you can give every value of #x# in the real domain and your function devolves a value of #y#.

The range is a little bit tricky.
The graph of a quadratic is a PARABOLA...basically a U shaped curve.

The position of the lowes (or highest) point gives us the possibility to "see" the range!
Your quadratic has #-3# in front of #x^2# so it is a "sad" parábola, a inverted U shaped curve
The highest point is called the Vertex and is given (the coordinates) as (if you have your quadratic in the general form:
#ax^2+bx+c=0#):
#x_v=-b/(2a)#
#y_v=-Delta/(4a)#
with #Delta=b^2-4ac#

in your case:
#x_v=-(-3)/(2*-3)=-1/2#
#y_v=[9-4(-3*4)]/(4*-3)=4.75#

So your range is all the #y# less or equals to #4.75#.

Graphically:
graph{-3x^2-3x+4 [-10.62, 7.16, 1.22, 10.11]}