As illustrated early in this lesson, functions exist in a variety of settings outside of the commonly known examples of plugging in a number and receiving a number as an output. For example, if using the letters on a keyboard and monitor for a computer (assuming everything is connected properly), pushing the B key on the keyboard will result in the letter b appearing on the monitor. With differing keystrokes resulting in a different letter appearing across the screen, the relation connecting the keystrokes of the letters on a keyboard to the letter appearing on the computer monitor is a function since every input has a unique output. For this discussion, you are tasked with finding a relation from the real world that avoids numbers and is a function. Remember that in order for a function to exist, you will need a well-defined set of inputs (our example used the set of all letters on the keyboard) and each input has a unique output (our example used the letter that appeared on the computer monitor as the unique output). In order to receive full credit for this discussion post, you must complete the following tasks:
Create a function that exists in the real world while avoiding the use of numbers.
Justify the reason why your example is a function (you may want to focus on the set of all inputs along with how the outputs are determined for each input).
Reply to at least two classmate providing a thorough analysis of their example and determine if it is a function.
Discussion post instructions:
- Write posts that are of sufficient length, relevant and reflect your deep understanding. Please include a question to encourage other students for further discussion.