Functions play an important role in mathematics. To visualize them to better understand their properties, so that we can see roots and extreme points, we can plot them in a coordinate system. In this recipe, we will see how to easily plot functions. First, let's print the polynomial function f(x) = x^3 - 5*x.
We will use the pgfplots package, which is based on PGF/TikZ. We already used it in the previous chapter to draw various diagrams. Now it will plot a function for us. Follow these steps:
Start with a document class. For this recipe, we decide on the
standaloneclass, which is great for creating single graphics with just a small margin, but you can choose thearticleclass or another one as well.\documentclass[border=10pt]{standalone}Load the
pgfplotspackage:\usepackage{pgfplots}Start the document and open a
tikzpictureenvironment:\begin{document} \begin{tikzpicture}Begin an
axisenvironment with centered axis lines:\begin{axis...