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Day 3 - Handout

This document provides instructions and examples for students to practice sketching and analyzing polynomial functions of varying degrees. It includes examples of creating tables of values, using technology to graph functions, relating the number of distinct factors of a polynomial to the number of x-intercepts and turning points, and using characteristic information like roots and end behavior to sketch functions without technology or determine the equation of a function from its graph.

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58 views

Day 3 - Handout

This document provides instructions and examples for students to practice sketching and analyzing polynomial functions of varying degrees. It includes examples of creating tables of values, using technology to graph functions, relating the number of distinct factors of a polynomial to the number of x-intercepts and turning points, and using characteristic information like roots and end behavior to sketch functions without technology or determine the equation of a function from its graph.

Uploaded by

api-383918624
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Math III Honors Name: ________________________________

Unit 2 Day 3: Sketching and Analyzing Polynomial Equations


0. Warm-up/Launch
Recall the exit ticket from yesterday. We will extend these equations below.

a. Create a table of values for f(x) = 2x4 + x3 - 3x2 - x


x
f(x)

Recall that the real roots for this equation are x= -1.341, -0.321, 0, and 1.162. Find where these are in the table
of values.

What do you notice?

b. Create a table of values for g(x) = -x5 - 2x3 + 5x - 1


x
g(x)

Recall that the real roots for this equation are x= -1.267, 0.203, and 1.123. Find where these are in the table of
values.

What do you notice?

Definition: The Location Principle

c. Create a table of values for h(x) = x5 - 3x3 + x2 -1


x
h(x)

Estimate where the roots are in this equation.


1. Investigation with Extrema
Recall that the graph of p(x) = a(x-x1)(x-x2)…(x-xn) has x1, x2,…, xn as its x-intercepts, or roots. The graph must
move away from and then move back toward the x-axis between each pair of successive x-intercepts, which
means that the graph has a turning point between those x-intercepts. This is called extrema.

a. Use technology to graph the cubic functions below and fill in the table.
Function f(x) = x3 f(x) = x2(x-2) x(x-2)(x+2)
How many distinct
factors does f(x) have?
What are the roots?
Describe them.
How many turning points
does the graph have?

b. Use technology to graph the quartic functions below and fill in the table.
Function f(x) = x4 f(x) = x3(x-2) f(x) = x2(x-2)(x+2) f(x) = x(x-2)(x+2)(x+3)
How many distinct
factors does f(x) have?
What are the roots?
Describe them.
How many turning
points does the graph
have?

c. What do you notice about how many extrema there are in relation to each of the graphs? Make a conjecture.

2. Sketching Polynomials Functions


a. You already saw how f(x) = (x)(x-2)(x+2)(x+3) looks like through technology, but how can we sketch this
graph if we didn’t have technology? You’ll need the following….
Characteristic (x)(x-2)(x+2)(x+3)
Domain and Range

End Behavior

Roots (describe)

Y-intercept

You may also need a table of values if your polynomial function is not written out in factored form (for
example, if you expand f(x), you’d get x4 + 3x3 - 4x2 - 12x. You’d then have to guess where your roots are
through the location principle. Make a table of values from -3 to 3. How many extrema are there?
x -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3
f(x)
Using the characteristics and your table of values, graph f(x) above.
b. Consider g(x) = x4 + x3 - x2 + x - 2. Since this isn’t in factor form, you’ll need a table of values! This will
also help you find turning points in your function. Sketch this function using characteristics you’ve learned so
far with a table of values. What do you notice about this graph?

3. Analyzing Polynomial Functions


a. What if you had a polynomial function and you don’t know the equation? Write some ideas down on what
you would do to find the equation.

b. The graph on the right represents h(x). Describe h(x)


using characteristics of a polynomial function.

How can we use this to find the equation for h(x)? Assume that the roots for h(x) are all real. Find the equation
for h(x).

c. The graph on the right represents i(x). Describe i(x) using characteristics
of a polynomial function. You do not need to find the equation.

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