Thread: Doubting my results in synthetic division

1. a) Use synthetic division to find the quotient and the remain when

f(x) = x^4 - 4x^3 - 6x^2 + 7x +24 is divided by g(x) = x + 1/2

My answer: x^3 - 9/2x^2 + 15/4x + 41/8 remainder 343/16

I always doubt myself when I get answers as odd as these. Is this correct?

It looked good for a while but you wandered off there toward the end. Give it another go.

Try evaluating f(-1/2) to check.

Note: It may simplify your life substantially to calculate rather than what you have proposed.

Okay so I multiplied it all by 2 and used synthetic division and got:

2x^3 -9x^2 -3x +17 remainder 31. Next I must divide by 2, correct? In this case we get x^3 -9/2x^2 -3/2x +17/2 remainder 31/2?