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Zeros. Zero to hero! …or was it Gyro?. From Yesterday. How do I tell how many zeros a function has? It’s the same as the degree of the function. How do we find the zeros?. The long way –make a t-chart For our homework, only go from -4 to +4
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Zeros Zero to hero! …or was it Gyro?
From Yesterday • How do I tell how many zeros a function has? • It’s the same as the degree of the function
How do we find the zeros? • The long way –make a t-chart • For our homework, only go from -4 to +4 • Any time two consecutive values on a t-chart go from positive to negative, you have a zero in between them • To approximate zeros, repeat the t-chart process using tenths-place values
Example • f(x) = x4 + 3x3 – 5 • Make a T-chart • Plug in x-values from -4 to 4 • Iterate
Is there a shortcut? • Kind of • First, Descartes’ Rule of Signs
Descartes’ Rule of Signs • Used to determine number of types of zeros • For positive real zeros: • Count the number of times the sign on the coefficients changes • For negative real zeros: • Find f(-x), then repeat what we did for positives.
One other thing to note • Imaginary roots: if you have not-imaginary coefficients, they always happen in conjugate pairs • This means there are always two, and you always just flip the sign on the i-term
Now how about that shortcut? • Remember synthetic division? • f(x) = 2x3 – 17x2 + 90x – 41 • f(1/2) • The ½ is a given value of x for which the function is zero; in other words, it’s an answer. • It also means that (x – ½ ) is a binomial factor of the function. In other words you can divide f(x) by that binomial and it will come out evenly. This is why we use synthetic division here – to find what’s left when you divide.
We also go the other direction • If we know all the zeros, but not the function, we can figure out the version with the smallest integer coefficients easily. • Make each zero into a binomial • i.e., if f(2)= 0, (x – 2) is the corresponding binomial. • It’s always x – (the zero) • Multiply all the binomials together (FOIL/distribution) • Example: • f(2) = 0, f(3) = 0, f(-2) = 0 • (x – 2)(x – 3)(x + 2) = f(x) • x3 – 3x2 – 4x + 12 = f(x)