Question

what does reflecting off the x axis mean?

Answer 1

Usually people say reflecting "over" the x axis.
See what jdoe did? He flipped that ellipse to the other side of the x-axis..kinda like a mirror

Answer 2

Or "reflected in the x axis" which is a little weird but algebra 2 books use it. "Over" makes the most sense.

Answer 3

But yes, it means you can imagine the x axis is a mirror.

Answer 4

can you reflect in the y axis? or not usually

Answer 5

whats the difference between reflecting in the y axis and reflecting in the x axis?

Answer 6

Well, reflecting in the x axis means you treat the x axis as a mirror, what do you think reflecting in the y axis means?

Answer 7

haha the same thing

Answer 8

thank you

Answer 9

You can reflect in either.

For a function f(x),
-f(x) reflects over the x-axis
f(-x) reflects over the y-axis

Eg https://www.google.com/search?q=e%5Ex%2C+e%5E(-x)&oq=e%5Ex%2C+e%5E(-x)&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i65j0l4.772j0j7&sourceid=chrome&espv=210&es_sm=93&ie=UTF-8

e^x and e^(-x) is a reflection in the y axis

https://www.google.com/search?q=e%5Ex%2C+-e%5Ex&oq=e%5Ex%2C+-e%5Ex&aqs=chrome..69i57j69i65.7498j0j7&sourceid=chrome&espv=210&es_sm=93&ie=UTF-8

e^x and -e^x is a reflection in the x axis

Answer 10

thank you for the visuals that helped a lot

Answer 11

No prob. It doesn't work for every graph... like i mean, some graphs will look the same.


eg (-x)^2 looks the same as x^2, since they're equivalent.

Answer 12

how are they equivalent?