Chapter 2
Functions
Stewart, PreCalculus, 7th Edition. © 2016 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or
duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
2.4 Average Rate of Change of a Function
Stewart, PreCalculus, 7th Edition. © 2016 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or
duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Objectives
• Average Rate of Change
• Linear Functions Have Constant Rate of Change
Stewart, PreCalculus, 7th Edition. © 2016 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or
duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Average Rate of Change of a Function
Functions are often used to model changing quantities.
In this section we learn how to find the rate at which the values of a function
change as the input variable changes.
Stewart, PreCalculus, 7th Edition. © 2016 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or
duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Average Rate of Change
Stewart, PreCalculus, 7th Edition. © 2016 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or
duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Average Rate of Change (1 of 7)
We are all familiar with the concept of speed: If you drive a distance of 120
miles in 2 hours, then your average speed, or rate of travel, is 120 mi 60 mi/h.
2h
Now suppose you take a car trip and record the distance that you travel every
few minutes. The distance s you have traveled is a function of the time t:
s(t) = total distance traveled at time t
Stewart, PreCalculus, 7th Edition. © 2016 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or
duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Average Rate of Change (2 of 7)
We graph the function s as shown in Figure 1.
Average speed
Figure 1
Stewart, PreCalculus, 7th Edition. © 2016 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or
duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Average Rate of Change (3 of 7)
The graph shows that you have traveled a total of 50 miles after 1 hour, 75
miles after 2 hours, 140 miles after 3 hours, and so on.
To find your average speed between any two points on the trip, we divide the
distance traveled by the time elapsed.
Let’s calculate your average speed between 1:00 P.M. and 4:00 P.M. The time
elapsed is 4 − 1 = 3 hours. To find the distance you traveled, we subtract the
distance at 1:00 P.M. from the distance at 4:00 P.M., that is, 200 − 50 = 150 mi.
Stewart, PreCalculus, 7th Edition. © 2016 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or
duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Average Rate of Change (4 of 7)
Thus your average speed is
distance traveled 150mi
average speed 50 mi/h
time elapsed 3h
The average speed that we have just calculated can be expressed by using
function notation:
s 4 s 1 200 50
average speed 50 mi/h
4 1 3
Stewart, PreCalculus, 7th Edition. © 2016 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or
duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Average Rate of Change (5 of 7)
Note that the average speed is different over different time intervals. For
example, between 2:00 P.M. and 3:00 P.M. we find that
s 3 s 2 140 75
average speed 65 mi/h
3 2 1
Finding average rates of change is important in many contexts.
Stewart, PreCalculus, 7th Edition. © 2016 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or
duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Average Rate of Change (6 of 7)
AVERAGE RATE OF CHANGE
The average rate of change of the function y = f(x) between x = a and x = b is
change in y f b f a
average rate of change
change in x b a
The average rate of change is the slope of the secant line between x = a and x =
b on the graph of f, that is, the line that passes through (a, f(a)) and (b, f(b)).
Stewart, PreCalculus, 7th Edition. © 2016 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or
duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Average Rate of Change (7 of 7)
In the expression for average rate of change, the numerator f (b) − f (a) is the
net change in the value of f between x = a and x = b.
Stewart, PreCalculus, 7th Edition. © 2016 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or
duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Example 1 – Calculating the Average Rate of Change
For the function f ( x ) ( x – 3)2 , whose graph is shown in Figure 2, find the
net change and the average rate of change between the following points:
(a) x = 1 and x = 3
(b) x = 4 and x = 7
f ( x ) ( x – 3)2
Figure 2
Stewart, PreCalculus, 7th Edition. © 2016 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or
duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Example 1 – Solution (1 of 2)
(a) Net change = f (3) − f (1) Definition
3 3 1 3
2 2
Use f x x 3
2
= −4 Calculate
f 3 f 1
Average rate of change = Definition
3 1
4 Calculate
2
2
Stewart, PreCalculus, 7th Edition. © 2016 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or
duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Example 1 – Solution (2 of 2)
(b) Net change = f (7) − f (4) Definition
Use f x x 3
2
7 3 4 3
2 2
= 15 Calculate
f 7 f 4
Average rate of change = Definition
7 4
15
5 Calculate
3
Stewart, PreCalculus, 7th Edition. © 2016 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or
duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Linear Functions Have Constant Rate of Change
Stewart, PreCalculus, 7th Edition. © 2016 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or
duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Linear Functions Have Constant Rate of Change
We know that a function of the form f (x) = mx + b is a linear function. Its graph
is a line with slope m.
On the other hand, if a function f has constant rate of change, then it must be a
linear function. In general, the average rate of change of a linear function
between any two points is the constant m.
In the next example we find the average rate of change for a particular linear
function.
Stewart, PreCalculus, 7th Edition. © 2016 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or
duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Example 4 – Linear Functions Have Constant Rate of
Change
Let f (x) = 3x − 5. Find the average rate of change of f between the following
points.
(a) x = 0 and x = 1
(b) x = 3 and x = 7
(c) x = a and x = a + h
What conclusion can you draw from your answers?
Stewart, PreCalculus, 7th Edition. © 2016 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or
duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Example 4(a) – Solution
f 1 f 0
Average rate of change
1 0
3 1 5 3 0 5
1
2 5
1
3
Stewart, PreCalculus, 7th Edition. © 2016 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or
duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Example 4(b) – Solution
f 7 f 3
Average rate of change
7 3
3 7 5 3 3 5
4
16 4
4
3
Stewart, PreCalculus, 7th Edition. © 2016 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or
duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Example 4(c) – Solution (1 of 2)
f a h f a
Average rate of change
a h a
3 a h 5 3a 5
h
3a 3h 5 3a 5
h
3h
h
3
Stewart, PreCalculus, 7th Edition. © 2016 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or
duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Example 4(c) – Solution (2 of 2)
It appears that the average rate of change is always 3 for this function. In fact,
part (c) proves that the rate of change between any two arbitrary points x = a
and x = a + h is 3.
Stewart, PreCalculus, 7th Edition. © 2016 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or
duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
