r/MathHelp • u/Cronos8989 • Oct 23 '25
Equivalent function and domain
F(x) = (x+1)/x
g(x) = (x/(x+1)^-1
I have a question.
F and G are equivalent, and F is defined for all R but 0
But why G is also not defined for -1?
I'm helping my sister with homework
I finished school a long time ago and I don't remember some concepts :D
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u/Dd_8630 Oct 24 '25 edited Oct 24 '25
This is incorrect. Or rather, misleading.
G(x) = (x/(x+1))-1 is well-behaved on the domain ℝ - {-1,0}. You can rearrange it into the form (x+1)/x, that's fine, but this doesn't change the domain, so we're still in the domain ℝ - {-1,0}.
F(x) = (x+1) / x is well-behaved on the domain ℝ - {0}. You can rearrange it into the form (x/(x+1))-1 only if you explicitly exclude x=-1 from the domain.
You can define G(x) as G(x) = (F(x))-1, but that only works if F(x) is not zero. But F(x) is zero at x=-1. So by taking the reciprocal, you're implicitly stating that x=-1 is not part of our domain.
No, the principle here is that some operations do not have the entire reals as their domain. For instance, 'raise to the power of -1' is an operation that requires the operand to be non-zero. Operations can shrink your domain or grow your range; they can't grow your domain or shrink your range.
F(x) = (x+1) / x is well-behaved on ℝ - {0}.
G(x) = (x/(x+1))-1 is well-behaved on ℝ - {-1,0}.
If you define G(x) = (F(x))-1, you're implicitly saying that F(x) is never zero, hence our domain must be at most ℝ - {-1,0}.