Thread: NEED HELP ASAP Quartic factoring

hey everbody got an assignment from my math teacher today that me and the rest of the class are absolutly stumped on"

f(x) = X^4 - 3x^3 - 13x^2 + 3X + 12
f(-1) = 0

Then i synthetically divided and came up with this unfinished division statement.

Therefore: X^4 - 3x^3 - 13x^2 + 3X + 12
= ( X + 1 ) ( X^3 - 4X^2 - 9X + 12)
= ryguy272 totally stuck




ANY HELP APPRECITATED ( i cant spell )

Hello, ryguy272!

Then i divided and came up with:
. .

. . . totally stuck

I guess you didn't notice that: . . . so is also a factor.

Whenever the coefficients add up to 0, you have 1 as a root. It's a quick tip when you're looking to drop a polynomial down a notch.