Have you ever notice how ambulances have the word “ambulance” printed backwards on the front?
This is done so that a driver can read the reflection in the rear-view mirror.
The mirror changes the orientation so that the letters appear as they should in the reflection.
The same thing happens with any reflection. When you raise your right hand, your mirror-image raises its left hand.
Reflections are another transformation of graphs of functions in the coordinate plane. The graph of a function may be reflected in the y-axis, as shown here…
or the x-axis, as shown here. The graph of a function can be reflected in the x-axis by changing the sign of the y-values of the points on the graph
while the graph of a function can be reflected in the y-axis by changing the sign of the x-values of the points.
The simulation allows you to experiment with reflections.
You can specify reflections by checking the boxes at the bottom of the interface. You may select either reflection alone, or both together, or no reflection at all.
The simulation also includes the controls for shifts of graphs and stretching or shrinking of graphs from the previous two simulations. These controls work as they did in those simulations, so be sure to understand them before proceeding. With reflections working together with shifts and stretches or shrinkings, a few basic functions can be modified for use in a large number of situations.