Question 479848:  
Given f(x) = 9 – x² , x≧0 , find f-1 if the inverse exists.
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Given f(x) = 3Öx-1, find f-1 if the inverse exists.
 
 Answer by Edwin McCravy(20064)      (Show Source): 
You can  put this solution on YOUR website! Given f(x) = 9 – x² , x≧3 , find f-1 if the inverse exist. 
I'll just do the first one.
Here is the graph of f(x) = 9 – x² without the restriction x≧3
  
As you see it does not pass the horizontal line test so its inverse,
(in green) which is its reflection in the 45° line through the origin whose
equation is y=x (the blue dotted line below) would not pass the vertical 
line test, and would not be a function, as you can see:
 
However with the restriction x≧0, the graph is only the
right half of the whole curve (without the restriction x≧0):
  
Then the curve passes the horizontal line test, so that when we
reflect it in the line y=x (blue dotted line), the green inverse
graph passes the vertical line test and therefore is a function:
 
Now we need to find the equation of the green functional curve,
which is the graph of the inverse of the f(x), which is denoted
f-1(x). 
To do this, we start with the original equation:
  f(x) = 9 – x²
Then we change f(x) to y
     y = 9 - x²
Next we interchange x and y
     x = 9 - y²
We solve for y
    y² = 9 - x
Using the principle of square roots:
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     y = ±Ö9 - x
But we use only the + square root since the green graph of
the inverse is above the x-axis, so we have
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     y = Ö9 - x
 
and now we replace y by f-1
         _____
f-1(x) = Ö9 - x
That's the equation of the green curve above which is the 
inverse of f(x)
Edwin  
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