To move it to the left we would add units and subtract units to move it to the right. Thus to move y = x3 two units to the right we subtract 2 units and the function becomes y = (x- 2)3 and the graph moves right as illustrated below.
If we wanted to move the graph to the left we would add the number of units we wanted to move.
example: y = (x + 5)3 would move the graph 5 units to the left.
The other parent functions are moved using the same procedure. For example to move y = x2 to the right 4 units
we would subtract 4 units y = (x - 4)2
Moving the graph to another place but not changing the graph's shape is called a rigid transformation
Next we will study reflection of a graph. next
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