Question

Determine whether the equation defines y as a function of x. 8x^2+y^2=1 walk me through do not just answer im soo confused...

Answer 1

No it does not.
When y is a function of x, it means for any x value in the domain of the function there can be only one y value. For the equation above if you set x to zero you will see that you can have two values for y which are +1 and -1.
You can even show this in a general way: 8x^2+y^2=1 --> y^2=1-8x^2 --> y=+-square root(1-8x^2) you can get double y values for most of the x values in the domain.