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Vertical line test

From AoPSWiki

The vertical line test is a way of determining whether or not a plotted graph is a function.

The vertical line test states that a relation is a function iff no vertical line intersects the graph in more than one point.

This is because a function cannot have more than one output for any one input.

For example, y=x^2 is a function because any vertical line intersects it in, at most, one point, while x^2+y^2=1 is not a function (try the line x=0).

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