Find Domain and Range of Arcsine Functions

Questions on how to find domain and range of arcsine functions.

Theorem

1.     y = arcsin x     is equivalent to     sin y = x
with     -1 ? x ? 1     and     - pi / 2 ? y ? pi / 2

Question 1

Find the domain and range of y = arcsin(x - 1)

Solution to question 1
1. Domain: To find the domain of the above function, we need to impose a condition on the argument (x - 1) according to the domain of arcsin(x) which is -1 ? x ? 1 . Hence
-1 ? (x - 1) ? 1
solve to obtain domain as: 0 ? x ? 2
which as expected means that the graph of y = arcsin(x - 1) is that of y = arcsin(x) shifted one unit to the right.
2. Range: A shift to the right does not affect the range. Hence the range of y = arcsin(x - 1) is the same as the range of arcsin(x) which is - pi / 2 ? y ? pi / 2

Question 2

Find the domain and range of y = - arcsin(x + 2)

Solution to question 2
1. Domain: To find the domain of the above function, we need to impose a condition on the argument (x + 2) according to the domain of arcsin(x) which is -1 ? x ? 1 . Hence
-1 ? (x + 2) ? 1
solve to obatain domain as: - 3 ? x ? - 1
which as expected means that the graph of y = arcsin(x + 2) is that of y = arcsin(x) shifted two units to the left.
2. Range: The range of arcsin(x + 2) is the same as the range of arcsin(x) which is - pi / 2 ? y ? pi / 2. Hence we can write
- pi / 2 ? arcsin(x + 2) ? pi / 2


We now multiply all terms of the above inequality by - 1 and invert the inequality symbols
pi / 2 ? - arcsin(x + 2) ? - pi / 2
Which is equivalent to
- pi / 2 ? - arcsin(x + 2)? pi / 2
which gives the range of y = - arcsin(x + 2) as the interval [- pi / 2 , pi / 2]

Question 3

Find the domain and range of y = -2 arcsin(3 x - 1)

Solution to question 3
1. Domain: To find the domain, we need to impose the following condition
-1 ? (3 x - 1) ? 1
solve to obtain domain as: 0 ? x ? 2 / 3
2. Range: The range of arcsin(3x - 1) is the same as the range of arcsin(x) which is - pi / 2 ? y ? pi / 2. Hence we can write
- pi / 2 ? arcsin(3x - 1) ? pi / 2


We now multiply all terms of the above inequality by - 2 and invert the inequality symbols
pi ? - 2 arcsin(3x - 1) ? - pi
which gives the range of y = - 2 arcsin(3x - 1) as the interval [- pi , pi]


Question 4

Find the domain and range of y = 4 arcsin( -2(x - 1) ) - pi/2

Solution to question 4
1. Domain: To find the domain, we need to impose the following condition
-1 ? -2(x - 1) ? 1
solve to obtain domain as: 1 / 2 ? x ? 3 / 2
2. Range: The range of arcsin(-2(x - 1)) is the same as the range of arcsin(x) which is - pi / 2 ? y ? pi / 2. Hence we can write
- pi / 2 ? arcsin(-2(x - 1)) ? pi / 2


We now multiply all terms of the above inequality by 4
-2 pi ? 4 arcsin(-2(x - 1)) ? 2 pi
We now subtract - pi/2 from all terms of the above inequality.
- 5 pi / 2 ? 4 arcsin(-2(x - 1)) ? 3 pi / 2 which gives the range of y = 4 arcsin(-2(x - 1)) - pi / 2 as the interval [- 5 pi / 2 , 3 pi / 2]

More References and Links to Inverse Trigonometric Functions

Inverse Trigonometric Functions
Graph, Domain and Range of Arcsin function
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Find Domain and Range of Arcsine Functions
Solve Inverse Trigonometric Functions Questions