SOLUTION: Need some help with this problem. Given g(s) = - s² + 5 find f(-4) and f(4a) Thank you for your time, David.

You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Well, you've given us ? then you ask for f(-4) and f(4a) ???
You will have to give us the function statement for f(?)
Please re-post the problem so that is clear.

You can put this solution on YOUR website!
Given:
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It would then be more correct to say find g(-4) and g(4a) instead of f(-4) and f(4a).
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All that this is telling you to do is to substitute -4 for s and then substitute 4a for s
and simplify both results.
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Start with:
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and replace every s with -4 to get:
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Then square the -4 to get +16 and the equation then becomes:
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Remove the parentheses by changing the sign of the 16 to minus to get:
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and finally combine the -16 and +5 to get -11. This makes the answer:
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Next to find g(4a) start with the original function and replace every s with 4a to get:
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Square 4a to get and the equation then becomes:
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And that's the answer. You can't combine terms because one contains a variable (a) and the
other does not ... so they are dissimilar.
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Hope that helps you to see your way through the problem.