Resumen de Students' confusions with reciprocal and inverse functions

Igor Kontorovich

• These classroom notes are focused on undergraduate students' understanding of the polysemous symbol of superscript (-1), which can be interpreted as a reciprocal or an inverse function. Examination of 240 scripts in a mid-term test identified that some first-year students struggle with choosing the contextually correct interpretation and there are students who use both interpretations in their solutions. Several students also confuse between composition and multiplication of functions denoted by resembling symbols of ‘°’ and ‘·’.