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can someone please help me solve, it's on factor theorem, I got most of the answer it's just for the remainder what is it? is what I'm doing correct?​

can someone please help me solve, it's on factor theorem, I got most of the answer-example-1
User Mahbaleshwar Hegde
by
3.1k points

1 Answer

17 votes
17 votes

Answer:

remainder: 3/4

Explanation:

You want to divide the polynomial (2x^4-9x^3-x^2+2) by (2x-1).

Polynomial long division

The attachment shows the division worked out.

Your work has a sign error in the second product: (-4x²)(2x-1) should be (-8x³+4x²).

Factor theorem

The factor theorem tells you that if division by (2x-1) gives a remainder of 0, then (2x-1) is a factor of the dividend polynomial. Alas, here, the remainder is not zero, so 2x-1 is not a factor.

Remainder theorem

The remainder theorem tells you that the remainder of p(x) divided by (x-a) is p(a). We can evaluate the polynomial for x=1/2, the value that makes the divisor zero:

f(1/2) = ((2(1/2) -9)(1/2) -1)(1/2)^2+2 = ((-8)(1/2) -1)(1/4) +2 =(-5)(1/4) +2 = 3/4

The remainder from division by (2x -1) is 3/4.

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Additional comment

We did the polynomial evaluation by writing it in Horner form. This minimizes the number of arithmetic operations required, and generally makes them simpler.

can someone please help me solve, it's on factor theorem, I got most of the answer-example-1
User Sahle
by
2.8k points