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How can the techniques of factoring be extended to work with higher-degree polynomials?

1 Answer

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Step-by-step explanation:

Any techniques that you're familiar with can be applied to polynomials of any degree. These might include ...

  • use of the rational root theorem
  • use of Descartes' rule of signs
  • use of any algorithms you're aware of for finding bounds on roots
  • graphing
  • factoring by grouping
  • use of "special forms" (for example, difference of squares, sum and difference of cubes, square of binomials, expansion of n-th powers of binomials)
  • guess and check
  • making use of turning points

Each root you find can be factored out to reduce the degree of the remaining polynomial factor(s).

User Fergusmac
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