A few days ago
j_lorraine17

I really need help with algebra 2?

I’m a sophomore in Algebra 2. Yep, I got bumped up. We are doing piecewise functions but I am so confused and my teacher is honestly one of the dumbest people I’ve ever met. He just writes down things, doesn’t explain them. Anyway….

f(x)= {5x-1} when x < -2 f(x)= {x-9} when x great than or equal to -2 Those are my equations the question is asking me to solve when f(-4) but what do I do? I have to first plug in -2 in the first equation then I have to plug in a number less than -2. Then in the second equation I have to plug in -2 again, then a number greater than -2. What do I do with the f(-4)? Help pleaseeeeee.

Top 4 Answers
A few days ago
jklharris2000

Favorite Answer

Basically, the graph has two different formulas depending if your x value is less then -2 or equal to/greater then -2. Your first step is to identify where your x plays into this. Seeing that -4 is less then -2, you’re going to use the first formula. In fact, the second formula can now be forgotten. So, all you have to do now is plug -4 into the formula 5x – 1, and voila!

-21 is your answer!

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A few days ago
Mary
No, you don’t have to plug in the -2 anywhere. The two equations are telling you what the graph looks like. When the x value is less than -2, then f(x) = 5x – 1. At -2, the graph changes to f(x) = x – 9.

So, if you’re being asked to solve for f(-4), you just need to know which function to plug the -4 in to get your answer. So, because f(x) = 5x – 1 when x is less than -2, and -4 is less than -2, you would use f(x) = 5x – 1. Thus, you would solve it using:

f(-4) = 5(-4) – 1 = -21

Does that make sense?

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A few days ago
Jonathan D
you use the function that pertains to the problem… whenever a function say something like f(-4), that mean the function is evaluated at that x value, in other words you plug in the -4 whenever you see and x… so since the -4 is less than -2 you would plug -4 into the first equation, because the second equation only pertains to values of x greater than or equal to -2. so plug in -4 when you see an x in the first equation and solve for f(x). and that’s your answer
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A few days ago
Anonymous
Well, f(-4) is asking you to pretty much substitute in -4 for x. You are given 2 different equations, one tells you what to do if x is > or = to -2 and the other is when x < -2. -4 is less than -2, so you use the equation f(x) = 5x - 1 f(-4) = 5 ( -4 ) -1 f(-4) = -20 - 1 f(-4) = -21
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