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Assume $f:A\to B$ and $g:B\to C$. $g \circ f : A \to C$ is a the constant function (thanks to the comments for noting this).

It can be shown straightforward the opposite (that if $f$ or $g$ is constant, then $f \circ g$ is constant). But this is not the problem.

Asaf Karagila
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fgs
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4 Answers4

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Let $f: \{1,2\} \to \{1,2,3\}$ be defined as follows:

$1 \mapsto 2$
$2 \mapsto 1$

Let $g: \{1,2,3\} \to \{1,2,3\}$ be defined as follows:

$1 \mapsto 1$
$2 \mapsto 1$
$3 \mapsto 3$

The composition $g \circ f: \{1,2\} \to \{1,2,3\}$ is the constant map

$1 \mapsto 1$
$2 \mapsto 1$

but neither $f$ nor $g$ is constant.

There is a general statement that can made about how the composition of two functions becomes a constant mapping. The pattern of this example is all that is needed to find this more abstract truth.

The OP is encouraged to find the answer to this more probing question and to let us know how their work is progressing.

CopyPasteIt
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No. Let f(x)=x^2 have codomain all of $\mathbb{R}$ and g(x) = sign(x+1). If the codomain is restricted so that f is onto instead, then g must be constant.

Zach Boyd
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  • Why the downvote? – Zach Boyd Sep 09 '17 at 22:41
  • What's $g(0)$? (Just a helpful comment - I'm not the downvoter). – Alex Kruckman Sep 09 '17 at 22:41
  • Fair enough. The edit should fix it. I think the main point of the post is not really changed though. Thanks for the comment :) – Zach Boyd Sep 09 '17 at 22:43
  • The downvote is likely for com-letely answering a homework question when OP showed no effort at all. – Ittay Weiss Sep 09 '17 at 22:46
  • Ah. I didn't notice that. Just saw the question was interesting and had a counterexample. It may well be a homework problem though. At this point, I assume it is a bad idea to delete the answer though? – Zach Boyd Sep 09 '17 at 22:48
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    I wouldn't worry about this one. Just keep our policies in mind. – Ittay Weiss Sep 09 '17 at 22:51
  • You know, this function stuff can be bewildering for new students. Assume our new user OP has 10 homework problems. Well, this is his/her one and only question. Can we give them the benefit of the doubt? (I did). – CopyPasteIt Sep 09 '17 at 23:05
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    Honestly I know that they should put some effort into solving the question on their own, however what happens to me often is that I just don't know where to begin and I'm stuck. I think we shouldn't be too harsh on the original poster. – Erock Brox Sep 09 '17 at 23:16
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This is what a constant map is.

http://mathworld.wolfram.com/ConstantMap.html

Every element from one set (A) gets mapped to a single element in the other set (B).

Erock Brox
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No. Consider the counterexample $$f(x)=g(x)=|x|-x$$

Franklin Pezzuti Dyer
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