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25 votes
25 votes
Can someone explain how to solve this step by step? Thank you

Can someone explain how to solve this step by step? Thank you-example-1
User Eric Lin
by
3.1k points

1 Answer

21 votes
21 votes

Answer:

x=10

Explanation:

Using the Rational Roots Test, we can say that the potential rational roots are

± (1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 9, 10, 15, 18, 30, 45, 90).

Unfortunately, there doesn't really seem to be an easy way to figure out which numbers are actually roots outside of guess and check. Therefore, to solve this, we'll have to go through numbers until we hit something.

To make the process faster, I wrote a Python script as follows:

numbers = [1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 9, 10, 15, 18, 30, 45, 90]

negative_numbers = [i * (-1) for i in numbers]

numbers = numbers + negative_numbers

for i in numbers:

if (i**3 - 10*(i**2) + 9*i-90) == 0:

print(i)

The result comes out as 10, meaning that 10 is our only rational root. Using the Factor Theorem, we can say that because 10 is a root, (x-10) is a factor of the polynomial. Using synthetic division, we can divide (x-10) from the polynomial to get

10 | 1 -10 9 -90

| 10 0 90

_________________

1 0 9 0

Therefore, we can say that

(x³-10x²+9x-90)/(x-10) = (x²+0x+9), so

x³-10x²+9x-90 = (x-10)(x²+9)

As the only solution to x²+9=0 contains imaginary numbers, x=10 is the only solution to x³-10x²+9x-90 = (x-10)(x²+9) = 0

User Fedj
by
3.5k points