Explanation:
To determine the end behavior of a polynomial function, you need to look at the degree (highest power of x) and the leading coefficient (the coefficient of the term with the highest power of x).
If the degree of the polynomial is even and the leading coefficient is positive, then the end behavior is that the function approaches positive infinity as x approaches both positive and negative infinity.
If the degree of the polynomial is even and the leading coefficient is negative, then the end behavior is that the function approaches negative infinity as x approaches both positive and negative infinity.
If the degree of the polynomial is odd and the leading coefficient is positive, then the end behavior is that the function approaches positive infinity as x approaches both positive infinity and negative infinity, but approaches negative infinity as x approaches negative infinity.
If the degree of the polynomial is odd and the leading coefficient is negative, then the end behavior is that the function approaches negative infinity as x approaches both positive infinity and negative infinity, but approaches positive infinity as x approaches negative infinity.
Here's an example:
Let's consider the polynomial function f(x) = 2x^4 - 3x^3 + 5x - 1.
The degree of this polynomial is 4, which is even, and the leading coefficient is even, and the leading coefficient is positive, which means that as x approaches both positive and negative infinity, the function approaches positive infinity.
Therefore, we can say that the end behavior of the polynomial function f(x) is that f(x) → ∞ as x → ±∞.