MATH SPARK TARGET CBSE

XI CH 1 RELATION AND FUNCTION

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RELATION
DEFINITION
Let A and B be two non-empty sets, then every subset of A × B defines a relation from A to B and every
relation from A to B is a subset of A × B.

Let R  A  B and (a, b)  R. Then we say that a is related to b by the relation R and write it as a R b . If
(a, b)  R , we write it as a R b .

Example: Let A = {1, 2, 5, 8, 9}, B = {1, 3} we set a relation from A to B as: a R b iff a  b; a  A, b  B .
Then R = {(1, 1)}, (1, 3), (2, 3)}  A × B

TOTAL NUMBER OF RELATIONS

Let A and B be two non-empty finite sets consisting of m and n elements respectively. Then A × B consists
of mn ordered pairs. So, total number of subset of A × B is 2mn. Since each subset of A × B defines relation
from A to B, so total number of relations from A to B is 2mn. Among these 2mn relations the void relation 
and the universal relation A × B are trivial relations from A to B.

DOMAIN AND RANGE OF A RELATION

Let R be a relation from a set A to a set B. Then the set of all first components or coordinates of the ordered
pairs belonging to R is called the domain of R, while the set of all second components or coordinates of the
ordered pairs in R is called the range of R.
Thus, Dom (R) = {a : (a, b)  R} and Range (R) = {b : (a, b)  R}.
It is evident from the definition that the domain of a relation from A to B is a subset of A and its range is a
subset of B.

RELATION ON A SET
Let A be a non-void set. Then, a relation from A to itself i.e. a subset of A × A is called a relation on set A.

FUNCTION
DEFINITION

If A and B are two non-empty sets, then a rule f which associated to each x  A, a unique number y  B,
is called a function from A to B and we write, f : A → B .

Function can be easily defined with the help of the concept of mapping. Let X and Y be any
two non-empty sets. “A function from X to Y is a rule or correspondence that assigns to each
element of set X, one and only one element of set Y”. Let the correspondence be ‘f’ then
mathematically we write f : X → Y where y = f (x ), x  X and y  Y . We say that ‘y’ is the
image of ‘x’ under f (or x is the pre image of y).
POINTS TO REMEMBER
(i) A mapping f : X → Y is said to be a function if each element in the set X has it’s
image in set Y. It is also possible that there are few elements in set Y which are not the
images of any element in set X.
(ii) Every element in set X should have one and only one image. That means it is
impossible to have more than one image for a specific element in set X. Functions can
not be multi-valued.
MATH SPARK TARGET CBSE

VALUE OF THE FUNCTION

If y = f (x ) is a function then to find its values at some value of x, say x = a, we directly
substitute x = a in its given rule f (x ) and it is denoted by f (a) .

e.g. If f (x ) = x 2 + 1, then f (1) = 1 2 + 1 = 2, f (2) = 2 2 + 1 = 5, f (0 ) = 0 2 + 1 = 1 etc.

DOMAIN, CO-DOMAIN AND RANGE OF FUNCTION

If a function f is defined from a set of A to set B then for f : A → B set A is called the domain of
function f and set B is called the co-domain of function f. The set of all f-images of the
elements of A is called the range of function f.
In other words, we can say Domain = All possible values of x for which f(x) exists.

Range = For all values of x, all possible values of f(x).

METHODS FOR FINDING DOMAIN AND RANGE OF FUNCTION
Domain
(a) Expression under even root (i.e., square root, fourth root etc.)  0
(b) Denominator  0.
(c) If domain of y = f (x ) and y = g (x ) are D1 and D 2 respectively then

the domain of f (x )  g (x ) or f (x ).g (x ) is D1  D2 .

f (x )
(d) While domain of is D1  D2 − {g(x ) = 0}.
g( x )

(e) Domain of ( )
f (x ) = D1  {x : f (x )  0}

Range
Range of y = f (x ) is collection of all outputs f (x ) corresponding to each real number

in the domain.
(a) If domain  finite number of points  range  set of corresponding f (x ) values.

(b) If domain  R or R – [some finite points]. Then express x in terms of y. From this
find y for x to be defined (i.e., find the values of y for which x exists).
(c) If domain  a finite interval, find the least and greatest value for range
using monotonicity.

Algebra of Functions.
Let f (x ) and g (x ) be two real and single-valued functions, with domains X f , X g and ranges Y f
and Y g respectively. Let X = X f  X g   . Then, the following operations are defined.

Scalar multiplication of a function

(c f )(x ) = c f (x ), where c is a scalar. The new function c f (x ) has the domain X f .

Addition/subtraction of functions
( f  g)(x ) = f (x )  g(x ). The new function has the domain X.
Multiplication of functions
( fg)(x ) = (g f )(x ) = f (x )g (x ). The product function has the domain X.
MATH SPARK TARGET CBSE
Division of functions
f f (x )
(i)   (x ) = . The new function has the domain X, except for the values of x for which
g g( x )
g (x ) = 0 .

g g( x )
(ii)   (x ) = . The new function has the domain X, except for the values of x for which
f f (x )
f (x ) = 0 .

Equal functions
Two function f and g are said to be equal functions, if and only if
(i) Domain of f = domain of g
(ii) Co-domain of f = co-domain of g
(iii) f (x ) = g(x ) x  their common domain

Real valued function

If R, be the set of real numbers and A, B are subsets of R, then the function f : A → B is called
a real function or real –valued function.
SOME IMPORTANT FUNCTIONS
Algebraic functions

Functions consisting of finite number of terms involving powers and roots of the
independent variable and the four fundamental operations +, –, × and  are called algebraic
functions.
3
x +1
e.g., (i) x + 5 x
2 (ii) ,x 1 (iii) 3x 4 − 5x + 7
x −1
The algebraic functions can be classified as follows:
Polynomial function

It is a function of the form a0 x n + a1 x n −1 + .... + an −1 x + an ,

where a0  0 and a0 , a1 ,......... , an are constants and n  N is called a polynomial function of

degree n

e.g. f (x ) = x 3 − 2 x 2 + x + 3 is a polynomial function.

The polynomial of first degree is called a linear function and polynomial

of zero degree is called a constant function.
Rational function

x2 −1
The quotient of two polynomial functions is called the rational function. e.g. f (x ) =
2x 3 + x 2 + 1
is a rational function.
Irrational function

An algebraic function which is not rational is called an irrational function. e.g.

x3 − x
f (x ) = x + x + 6, g(x ) = are irrational functions.
1 + x1/4
Exponential function
Let a  1 be a positive real number. Then f : R → (0, ) defined by f (x ) = a x is called exponential
function. Its domain is R and range is (0, ) .

Logarithmic function
Let a  1 be a positive real number. Then f : (0, ) → R defined by f (x ) = log a x is called
logarithmic function. Its domain is (0, ) and range is R.

Constant function
Let k be a fixed real number. Then a function f(x) given by f (x ) = k for all x  R is called a constant
function. The domain of the constant function f (x ) = k is the complete set of real numbers and the
range of f is the singleton set {k}. The graph of a constant function is a straight line parallel to x-axis as
shown in figure and it is above or below the x-axis according as k is positive or negative. If k = 0, then
the straight line coincides with x-axis.
MATH SPARK TARGET CBSE

Identity function
The function defined by f (x ) = x for all x  R , is called the identity function on R. Clearly, the domain
and range of the identity function is R.
The graph of the identity function is a straight line passing through the origin and inclined at an angle
of 45o with positive direction of x-axis.

Modulus function
 x , when x  0
The function defined by f (x ) =| x | =  is called the modulus function. The domain of the
-x , when x  0
modulus function is the set R of all real numbers and the range is the set of all non-negative real
numbers.

Greatest integer function

Let f (x ) = [ x ], where [x] denotes the greatest integer less than or equal to x. The domain is R and the
range is I. e.g. [1.1] = 1, [2.2] = 2, [– 0.9] = –1, [– 2.1] = – 3 etc. The function f defined by f (x ) = [ x ] for all
x  R , is called the greatest integer function.
Signum function
| x |  1, x  0
 , x 0 
The function defined by f (x ) =  x or f (x ) =  0, x = 0 is called the signum function. The
0 , x = 0 − 1, x  0
 
domain is R and the range is the set {–1, 0, 1}.

Reciprocal function
1
The function that associates each non-zero real number x to be reciprocal is called the reciprocal
x
function.

The domain and range of the reciprocal function are both equal to R − {0} i.e., the set of all non-zero
real numbers. The graph is as shown.
MATH SPARK TARGET CBSE

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