Mistake Master
Mistake Master · AP Precalculus · Unit 1 · Step-Through Animation
The Zeros You See, and the Ones You Cannot
You'll learnto account for every zero of a polynomial, including the ones the graph never shows.
A degree-four polynomial has exactly four zeros, and its graph may show only two of them. Nothing has gone wrong: zeros can stack on top of each other at one place, or they can leave the real line entirely and take a partner with them. Eleven short steps; press Next for each one.
zero ⇄ factor ⇄ intercept
Before you start
What you're looking at
A degree-four graph that meets the x-axis only twice, and the two hiding places its other zeros use.
The question
If the degree promises four zeros and you can see two crossings, where are the other two?