Finding Zeros of a Polynomial

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February 21st 2010, 03:56 PM
JennyFlowers

Finding Zeros of a Polynomial

Hello, all.

I need to find the zeros of the following polynomial so that I can graph it:

$f(x)=3x^2-x^4-2x$

First I factored out x and got:

$x(-x^3+3x-2)$

I used synthetic division to find another zero (-2) and so I now have:

$x(x+2)(-x^2+2x-1)$

I'm not sure how I can go any further. Can $-x^2+2x-1$ be factored out?

Thanks!
February 21st 2010, 04:19 PM
skeeter

Quote:

Originally Posted by JennyFlowers

Hello, all.

I need to find the zeros of the following polynomial so that I can graph it:

$f(x)=3x^2-x^4-2x$

First I factored out x and got:

$x(-x^3+3x-2)$

I used synthetic division to find another zero (-2) and so I now have:

$x(x+2)(-x^2+2x-1)$

I'm not sure how I can go any further. Can $-x^2+2x-1$ be factored out?

Thanks!

$-(x^2-2x+1) = -(x-1)^2$

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