Home page for accesible maths Math 101 Chapter 1: Sequences and Series

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1.9 Factorizing by guesswork

Given f(X)f(X) of degree nn, guess that aa is a zero of f(X)f(X) and check f(a)=0f(a)=0; then write

f(X)=(x-a)g(X)f(X)=(x-a)g(X)

where g(X)g(X) has degree n-1n-1; then guess that bb is a zero of g(X)g(X) and check g(b)=0g(b)=0; then

f(X)=(X-a)(X-b)h(X)f(X)=(X-a)(X-b)h(X)

where h(X)h(X) has degree n-2n-2; and so on until we find all the zeros we can.

Example

Find roots of f(X)=3+2X+X3f(X)=3+2X+X^{3}.