Graphing trig functions (1 Viewer)

[Scorch]

See I'm fine graphic trig functions like y=sinx or y=cosx or even y=3cosx but when you get stuff like y=3sin(x-pi/2)

It's kinda urgent, cos I have a test tommorow and my teacher didn't explain it too well. If you have pi/2 in the brackets, with a minus, that means that you move the graph of y=3sinx, pi/2 units to the right? Am I right?

It's really annoying cos my textbook doesn't have answers in the back for the graphing questions. Making things increasingly annoying.

Oh well, any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[pLuvia]

Yes and left if it's positive

 

[rama_v]

A good way to learn is to get a graphing program (many free ones are available) and just get it to draw different graphs. Then you can fiddle around and see what altering a variable does.

 

[Riviet]

Just to clarify, if you have the graph y=sin(x - a), then the graph would be y=sinx shifted to the right by "a" units. For y=sin(x + a), then the graph would be y=sinx shifted to the left by "a" units. Hope that helps.