Piecewise Problem: h(x) = |x-2| + |x+5|

[ASmith]

Homework Statement

h(x)= l x-2 l + l x+5 l

Homework Equations

The Attempt at a Solution

 

[LCKurtz]

What is your question?

 

[Office_Shredder]

I assume he's going to post it in pieces. Hence the name of the thread :)

 

[ASmith]

ha okay, well I'm just completely lost on how to go about making this a piecewise.
I've never encountered this before, and I've compared it to others.
Apparently something just isn't clicking with me.
any assistance?

 

[Office_Shredder]

You mean you want to describe this function piecewise? It's not very clear, since it IS described piecewise right now (one piece).

You probably want to do something like this:

I can describe the function g(x)=|x| by the following:
g(x) = x if x>=0
g(x) = -x if x<0

So you need to find where things inside the absolute value sign change signs, and describe h(x) piecewise between those points (hint: they change sign when they're zero)