Illustrations of the 4 most common Functions in School Mathematics
Straight Lines Imagine buying a cup of coffee for a friend that cost $1.50, then imagine buying a 2nd cup of coffee for another friend. Thing about how much extra you spent for that 2nd cup. Okay, buy another cup for a third friend. It total you have spent $4.50 for 3 cups of coffee. The relationship that describes how the cost increases as you buy more and more cups of coffee is called a straight line relationship or linear function. Parabola Consider trying to organise a Round Robin Tennis Tournament with some friends. When you first start planning the tournament, only 4 of you seem to be able to make it. Then the day before, a 5th member joins and then on the day itself, your cousin is in town and he wants to play too! How many matches do you need to arrange so that the tournament could take place with either 4, 5 or 6 players ? The relationship between the number of players and the number of matches to be scheduled is parabolic, or forms a parabola when visualise
