The polynomial f(x) has degree 3. If f(-1)=15, f(0)=0, f(1)=5 and f(2)=12, then what are the x-intercepts of the graph of f?
here may be some clever way to attack this but if so I'm not aware of itp(x)=ax3+bx2+cx+dusing the function values give we can form the equations−a+b−c+d=15d=0a+b+c+d=58a+4b+2c+d=12I would dump these into a matrix and solve it like that(−11−11000111118421)(abcd)=(150512)
Solving this using the method of you choice we find
a=−3, b=10, c=−2, d=0p(x)=−3x3+10x2−2x
The x-intercepts occur where p(x)=0, factoring we get
p(x)=−3x3+10x2−2x=−x(3x2−10x+2)and this has zeros at x=0 andx=10±√100−246=13(5±√19)
here may be some clever way to attack this but if so I'm not aware of itp(x)=ax3+bx2+cx+dusing the function values give we can form the equations−a+b−c+d=15d=0a+b+c+d=58a+4b+2c+d=12I would dump these into a matrix and solve it like that(−11−11000111118421)(abcd)=(150512)
Solving this using the method of you choice we find
a=−3, b=10, c=−2, d=0p(x)=−3x3+10x2−2x
The x-intercepts occur where p(x)=0, factoring we get
p(x)=−3x3+10x2−2x=−x(3x2−10x+2)and this has zeros at x=0 andx=10±√100−246=13(5±√19)