Question

What does f(x) mean ?
how do you solve a problem with f(x)?

Answer 1

f(x) is functional notation, it's a symbol that can represent any function, such as\[f(x)=x^2\] means a function that is equal to a number squared. It's a useful generic notation so you can do things like wonder what if we want to see what happens when we square -2?

Then we can set x to -2\[f(-2)=(-2)^2=4\]

Answer 2

In the pimpliest term, f(x) is just the dependent variable

Answer 3

note that you can use any letter (and in some disciplines, even whole words) to describe a function, i.e. \[g(x)\]describes a function as well