In Try This 3 you may have noticed that it is possible to graph a rational function in a variety of ways, just as you could with other functions. In general, it is a bit harder to use transformations to graph or interpret a rational function because there are so many different forms the function can take. For example, and  are both rational functions, but neither can be written in the form where a, h, and k are constants.

Technology or a table of values are typically good ways to accurately graph a rational function. If you are interested in only an approximation of the graph, you can make predictions about the graph’s characteristics and use these predictions to sketch the function. This idea will be explored further in Lesson 3.