i have absolutely no idea how to find domain and range. i have a list of rules and a page of examples, but they don't help much because the answers seem to defy the rules and at the same time have nothing at all to do with the examples. i don't suppose anyone could explain it to me in easy eigth grade terms?

Hum..we've always used graphs so it seems like you can just look and see what areas "x" and "y" cover....but we handed an equation it is much harder. I guess what I'm trying to say is look to see if "x" or "y" have negative and/or postive points and if any numbers are not included.
Probably not understandable since cold medicine has screwed up my head today. :D

Ashley has the right idea... If you're talking about the domain and range of any old function, just think of it as the domain being the numbers that will work for the x-variable, and the range being the set of numbers you get for y when you plug in x. A graph helps.
For example, if you've got f(x)=42x, the domain is all real numbers. There's no X you can put in that will break the graph. The range is from negative infinity to positive infinity, because the y-value keeps increasing/ decreasing "without bound".
If you've got f(x)=|x|, your domain is again all real numbers. Your range, however, is only the positive numbers, since there's no x you can plug into an absolute value to get a negative y.
If you've got f(x)=(x)/(x-1), your domain is all but positive 1, since when x=1, you're dividing by zero, and the graph breaks.
Hopefully that helps.

thanks guys. i dont' know why she didnt' just say that. i hope someday all teachers are MSA alumni.