Can you have a horizontal and slant asymptote?
Likewise, can a slant asymptote be crossed?
NOTE: A common mistake that students make is to think that a graph cannot cross a slant or horizontal asymptote. This is not the case! A graph CAN cross slant and horizontal asymptotes (sometimes more than once). It's those vertical asymptote critters that a graph cannot cross.
- If n < m, the horizontal asymptote is y = 0.
- If n = m, the horizontal asymptote is y = a/b.
- If n > m, there is no horizontal asymptote.
Consequently, what is the equation of the horizontal or oblique asymptote?
Case 1: If the degree of the numerator of f(x) is less than the degree of the denominator, i.e. f(x) is a proper rational function, the x-axis (y = 0) will be the horizontal asymptote. The line y = mx + b is an oblique asymptote for the graph of f(x), if f(x) gets close to mx + b as x gets really large or really small.
Horizontal asymptotes are horizontal lines that the graph of the function approaches as x tends to +∞ or −∞. As the name indicates they are parallel to the x-axis. Vertical asymptotes are vertical lines (perpendicular to the x-axis) near which the function grows without bound.