Question

Dennis is trying to determine if the following ordered pairs represent a function: (1, 4), (2, 8), (3, 12), (1, 16). He says yes because none of the y values do not repeat. What error did Dennis make and what is the correct answer?

Answer 1

Dennis incorrectly stated that the ordered pairs represent a function. The correct answer is that they do not form a function because the input of 1 corresponds to two different outputs.

Step-by-step explanation:

Dennis made an error by not recognizing that in a function, each input value (x-value) must correspond to exactly one output value (y-value). Given the ordered pairs (1, 4), (2, 8), (3, 12), (1, 16), we can see that the input value of 1 corresponds to two different output values (4 and 16).

This violates the definition of a function. Therefore, these ordered pairs do not represent a function since the input value of 1 maps to two distinct output values, which is not allowed in functions.