How to find the amplitude of a trigonometric function?
The amplitude of a trig function defines how much the graph is going to be getting stretched or compressed on the y-axis
. Take for example the following function.
$sin(x)$
On this function, no compression or stretching on the y-axis
is happening but if you add an amplitude of 3 the amplitude is going to stretch the function values up to the 3 mark on the y-axis
.
$3sin(x)$
The same concept applies to compressing the function for a value that is smaller than one.
$\frac { 1 }{ 2 }sin(x)$
If you now overlay all three functions together you will see that the function still have the same intercepts on the x-axis
just the values on the y-axis
have changed everything else has remained the same.