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Polynomials

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16 views6 pages

Polynomials

Uploaded by

fahadsserubiri8
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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POLYNOMIALS

By the end of this discussion, you should have acquired knowledge


about the following concepts:
 Long division  The factor theorem
 The remainder theorem
Background:
Recall the concept of long division of numbers in early algebra; say one
wishes to divide 8 by 3. Note that 3 is referred to as the divisor, and the
result of the operation is the quotient. In many cases, we also have a
remainder, as illustrated below;
2 Quotient
Divisor 3 8 Dividend

6
2 Remainder

Note that 8  3  2  2 , which we can translate to;


Dividend   Quotient    Divisor   Remainder
Note also, that the Remainder is strictly less than the Divisor.

Long Division of Polynomials


Number concepts like long division can also be transformed to
expressions or polynomials. Suppose we have a polynomial P( x) that we
need to divide by another (divisor), D  x  . This can be done, but we
require that deg  D  x    deg  P  x   . With this we have that
Q  x
D  x P  x


R  x
Hence we can now write that;
P  x   D  x   Q  x   R  x  ;This is the remainder theorem.

Where Q  x  is the quotient. The remainder is denoted R  x  because in


many instances, (generally when the divisor is non-linear) the remainder
is another function, whose nature depends on D  x  .

Case 1: Linear divisor


Suppose our divisor is D  x    x  a  , then

p  x   x  a  Q  x  R
substituting x  a gives
p a  R

Example 1: Find the remainder when the polynomial


27 x3  9 x 2  6 x  10 is divided by;
(i) x2
(ii) 3x  1
Solutions:
(i) Using long division, we have
27 x 2  63 x  120
x2 27 x3  9 x 2  6 x  10
  27 x 3  54 x 2  

63 x 2  6 x.
  63 x 2  126 x 
120 x  10
120 x  240
250
Hence we have the remainder as R  250 and the
Q  x   27 x 2  63 x  120

Or we could just substitute into the theorem statement above, and we’d
have;
p  x  D  x  Q  x  R

27 x 3  9 x 2  6 x  10   x  2   Q  x   R

Substituting x  2 gives;
3 2
27  2   9  2   6  2   10   2  2   Q  2   R

 R  250 as obtained before.


1
(ii) The same can be done by taking x 
3
Case 2: Non–linear divisors
The remainder in the above example turned out to be a constant. This is
the case for linear divisors. However, the situation is different when the
divisor is non–linear, and we can summarise the expected results in a
table.
Nature of divisor Nature of remainder
General Other
1. Linear Constant None
2. Quadratic Linear Constant
3. Cubic Quadratic Linear, Constant
4. Quartic Cubic Quadratic, Linear, Constant

In brief, the degree of the remainder is 1 less than that of the divisor.
Example 2: Find the quotient and remainder when
3x3  5 x 2  4 x  3 is divided by x 2  2 x  1.
Solution:
This requires long division, and we have;
3x  1
2 3 2
x  2x 1 3x  5 x  4 x  3
  3 x3  6 x 2  3x  

 x2  7 x  3
  x 2  2 x  1
9x  2
Thus we have Q  x   3x  1 as the quotient, and remainder is
R  x   9x  2

N.B: The remainder theorem can only work for non–linear


divisors iff the divisor is factorable into linear factors.
Example 3: Find the remainder when 3x 4  x3  11x 2  4 x  4 is
divided by x 2  x  2 .
Solution:
Suppose we have the remainder as R  x   mx  c , then we have;

3 x 4  x 3  11x 2  4 x  4   x 2  x  2   Q  x    mx  c 
  x  2  x  1  Q  x   mx  c
Substituting x  2 and x  1 in turn gives us
2m  c  8  (i )
 m  c  1   ii 

Solving equations (i) and (ii) simultaneously gives us m  3; c  2 .


Thus the remainder is R  x   3x  2 .

Example 4: A polynomial f  x  is such that f  4   7 and


f  3  14 . Find the remainder when f  x  is
divided by x 2  x  12 .
Solution:
From the remainder theorem, f  x   D  x   Q  x   R  x  .

 f  x    x 2  x  12   Q  x   ax  b ; R  x   ax  b
f  x    x  4  x  3  Q  x   ax  b
Substituting x  4 and x  3 in turn gives us;
f  4   4a  b   7   (i)
f  3  3a  b   14   (ii)
Solving (i) and (ii) simultaneously gives a  3 and b  5 , thus the
remainder can be stated as R  x   3 x  5 .

The Factor Theorem


Note that a number is only a factor of another if upon division the
remainder is 0(zero), otherwise it is not a factor.
Similarly, an expression is considered to be a factor of another iff the
remainder after division is 0. The remainder theorem was earlier stated as;
f  x  D  x  Q  x  R  x

Now that R  x   0 , the theorem takes new shape;

f  x  D  x  Q  x

This is the factor theorem, and as we can see, the divisor and quotient in
this case are all factors of f  x  .

(For linear divisors, x–a is a factor of f (x) if f (a) = 0)


Example 5: x  3 and 2 x  1 are both factors of the expression
f  x   2 x 4  5 x 3  px 2  25 x  q . Determine the
values of a and b and hence solve the equation
f  x  0 .

Example 6: The expression 3x3  2 x 2  bx  a is divisible by x  1


but has a remainder 10 when divided by x  1. Find
the values of a and b.

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