What's Your Function?

PART A

1. I found my article on the Department of Labor's website. I simply searched for the unemployment rate. 

     In summary, this is a graph conducted by the United States Department of Labor in order to show the unemployment rate over a given period. 

2. Functions can occur in many ways. One way you can distinguish whether or not something is a function is to understand that it only occurs when one input is assigned exactly one output. Another way you could tell whether or not something is a function is by looking a the graph. If the graph passes the vertical line test, then there is a function. 

3. 

4. This function represents the relationship between time and the percent of people unemployed in the during the month of January from 2005 to 2015. 

5. This graph does not represent a linear function because it is not a straight line. Furthermore, this graph does not have a constant rate of change at every interval. We know this by referring to the graph. On January 2007, the unemployment rate was approximately 5%. On January 2010, the Unemployment rate is was about 10%. Then, on January 2014, the unemployment rate dropped to about 7%. The constant changes in the rate of change do not allow the line to be straight and thus, not creating a linear function. 

6. This function is not a mathematical model because the percent of the unemployment rate (output) does not depend on time (input). ( The unemployment percentage actually depends on the economy)

Percent = f(time)

PART B

This graph is not a function. It is not a function because you can have two outputs for one input. For example, you can have a set of people with an average income of $50000 who have 40% chance of voting for Romney, but you could also have another group of people with an average of $50000 who have a 60% of voting for Romney. this will not allow the graph to pass the vertical line test, which is another reason as to why it would not be a function.