you are having a meeting with the CEO of a technology company. you have interpreted the number of laptops produced versus profit as the function p(x) = x^4 - 3x^3 - 8x^2 + 12x + 16. Describe to the CEO what the graph looks like. focus on the end behaviors of the graph and where the company will break even (where p(x) = 0).

Question

anonymous · Answer

@agent0smith  is this rate of change?

anonymous · Answer

This is what is wrong with math education. Math teacher present ridiculous problems like this trying to make it seem "real world".. I guarantee you a situation where a technology CEO would face a quadratic equation like this in this context would NEVER EVER occur in the real world. Stupid, stupid problem

anonymous · Answer

ummm i just need help not a rant bro

anonymous · Answer

No problem...Just an observation. More people should speak up about stupid crap like this.

Just go to wolframalpha.com and type in 
GRAPH y = x^4 - 3x^3 - 8x^2 + 12x + 16
that's what it looks like. 
The CEO wouldn't give a cr** what the end behavior is, but if you must know it approaches positive infinity on both sides since the degree of the function is even (highest power is 4) and the coefficient of the the x^4 term is positive (positive 1 to be specific)

agent0smith · Answer

@BangkokGarrett it's a quartic not a quadratic. And @joghad this is end behaviour, unrelated to rate of change.

anonymous · Answer

ok good

anonymous · Answer

yeah,, ok

anonymous · Answer

so how would  i do this one

agent0smith · Answer

http://hotmath.com/hotmath_help/topics/end-behavior-of-a-function.html

anonymous · Answer

thats what the graph looks like… it opens up right

anonymous · Answer

@agent0smith

agent0smith · Answer

No need to graph it to see. Look at the highest power: x^4. Now look at the table to find the end behaviour.

anonymous · Answer

positive infinity

anonymous · Answer

?

agent0smith · Answer

All the answers are in the table, under, leading coefficient positive, even degree.

anonymous · Answer

i know it says positive even: 

$$f(x) \rightarrow +$$

anonymous · Answer

$$f(x) \rightarrow +$$infinity

anonymous · Answer

$$f(x) = $$

anonymous · Answer

This is a test question for FLVS. It should be removed

anonymous · Answer

stfu @booker25