How do you find the domain and range of #y =sqrt(x-2) / (6+x)#?

1 Answer
Apr 24, 2015

You need to ensure that:
1] the denominator is different from zero, so:
#6+x!=0#
#x!=-6#
2] the argument of the square root must be bigger or equal to zero, so:
#x-2>=0#
#x>=2#
These conditions are used to avoid points or intervals where your function cannot be calculated.
Finally the domain is all real #x# bigger or equal to #2#.

For the range I evaluated the maximum through the derivative:
#y'=(10-x)/(2*(sqrt(x-2))*(x+6)^2)#
The maximum is at #x=10# (by setting #y'=0#) corresponding to #y=sqrt(8)/16# giving a range for #y# from zero to #sqrt(8)/16#.