Skip to content

The graph shows the parabolas

y=f(x) and y=g(x)

Given that g(x) is a translation of f(x), find an expression for g(x).


If you know an expression for f(x), you can then find g(x). Look at the location of the vertices to find how much to translate f by, both horizontally and vertically, to get g.


Since the curve y=f(x) is a parabola, f(x) is a quadratic, so it has the form

f(x)=ax2+bx+c

We know that (−6,0),(−3,−9) and (0,0) lie on y=f(x) and so we can substitute this information into y=f(x) to find a,b and c - thus, we find an expression for f(x).