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#1 2006-11-08 03:49:45

ElHombreSinNombre
New Member
Registered: 2006-08-21
Posts: 8

Finding Zeros of a Function

I have to find the zeros of a function, the funtion being
f(x) = x^4 - 3(X)^2 + 2

This is what I could figure out.

The possible number of positive zeros is 2 or 0, and the possible number of negative zeros is 2 or 0, because of Descart's Rule of Signs.

This is the part I think I might be messing up, where you take the "p", which is the the coeffeicient of the highest degree, and the "q" which is the coefficient of the lowest degree.  So I figure P is 1 and Q is 2.

Now I take the facotrs of 1 which are (+ or -) 1 and the factors of 2 which are (+ or -) 1 and 2.

Then I figure that the possible zeros are all the posssible (P/Q)'s. So that would be (+1, -1, +(1/2) and -(1/2).  After graphin the equation 2 of the zeros are 1 and -1, while the other 2 seem to be 1.4....  So I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong.  Any ideas???

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#2 2006-11-09 00:01:05

BenTheMan
Member
From: Columbus, OH
Registered: 2006-08-03
Posts: 147
Website

Re: Finding Zeros of a Function

ElHombreSinNombre wrote:

I have to find the zeros of a function, the funtion being
f(x) = x^4 - 3(X)^2 + 2
.
.
.
Any ideas???

Why don't you let
LaTeX Image.

Then
LaTeX Image.

You can use your quatratic equation once for m, and then again for x.


Sometimes you eat the bahr, and, well, sometimes he eats you. ---Anon

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