Help!

x^4+x^3-6x^2-14x-12=0

I found that the roots that produce the remainder of 0 are (2, -3).

How would you write the resulting cubic function?

Question

Help!

x^4+x^3-6x^2-14x-12=0

I found that the roots that produce the remainder of 0 are (2, -3).

How would you write the resulting cubic function?

dumbcow · Answer

use synthetic division to factor out roots

wait 2 doesn't work??

anonymous · Answer

It  doesn't? Uh-oh...maybe I went wrong somewhere? So then the only solution would be -3? @dumbcow

dumbcow · Answer

http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=plot+x%5E4+%2Bx%5E3+-6x%5E2+-14x-12 oh its -2 and 3

anonymous · Answer

Ah, thank you! @dumbcow  So...then we would use synthetic division to write the resulting cubic function?

dumbcow · Answer

yes and you can start with either root, say 3

3   |   1   1    -6    -14   -12
             3     12    18    12
---------------------------------
        1    4     6     4     0

cubic  --> x^3 +4x^2 +6x +4

anonymous · Answer

Thank you!! Do you think you could help me with another one? It's writing the quadratic function of x^3-7x^2-x+7=0 whose rational roots are 1 and 7 and then factoring or using the quadratic formula to find the final 2 roots. @dumbcow