What does it mean to translate a graph?

1 Answer
Jun 12, 2015

Translations are simply horizontal and/or vertical shifts. So, y = sqrtx - 2 is shifted 2 units down from y = sqrtx, while y = sqrt(x-2) is shifted 2 units right of y = sqrtx.

y = sqrtx:
graph{sqrtx [-10, 10, -5, 5]}

y = sqrtx - 2:
graph{sqrtx - 2 [-10, 10, -5, 5]}

y = sqrt(x - 2):
graph{sqrt(x-2) [-10, 10, -5, 5]}

y = sqrt(x - 2) - 2:
graph{sqrt(x-2) - 2 [-10, 10, -5, 5]}