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Every real polynomial of odd degree has an odd number of real roots (counting multiplicities); likewise, a real polynomial of even degree must have an even number of real roots. Consequently, real odd polynomials must have at least one real root (because the smallest odd whole number is 1), whereas even polynomials may have none.
A cubic function with real coefficients has either one or three real roots (which may not be distinct); [1] all odd-degree polynomials with real coefficients have at least one real root. The graph of a cubic function always has a single inflection point. It may have two critical points, a local minimum and a local maximum.
This can be proved as follows. First, if r is a root of a polynomial with real coefficients, then its complex conjugate is also a root. So the non-real roots, if any, occur as pairs of complex conjugate roots. As a cubic polynomial has three roots (not necessarily distinct) by the fundamental theorem of algebra, at least one root must be real.
The zero polynomial is also unique in that it is the only polynomial in one indeterminate that has an infinite number of roots. The graph of the zero polynomial, f(x) = 0, is the x-axis. In the case of polynomials in more than one indeterminate, a polynomial is called homogeneous of degree n if all of its non-zero terms have degree n. The zero ...
For polynomials with real or complex coefficients, it is not possible to express a lower bound of the root separation in terms of the degree and the absolute values of the coefficients only, because a small change on a single coefficient transforms a polynomial with multiple roots into a square-free polynomial with a small root separation, and ...
Graph of a polynomial function of degree 4, with its 4 roots and 3 critical points. + + + + = where a ≠ 0. The quartic ... thus it has at least one real root.
The vertical and horizontal lines are reflected off or refracted through in the following sequence: the line containing the segment corresponding to the coefficient of x n−1, then of x n−2 etc. Choosing θ so that the path lands on the terminus, −tan(θ) is a root of this polynomial. For every real zero of the polynomial, there will be ...
In elementary mathematics a polynomial and its associated polynomial function are rarely distinguished and the terms quadratic function and quadratic polynomial are nearly synonymous and often abbreviated as quadratic. A quadratic polynomial with two real roots (crossings of the x axis). The graph of a real single-variable quadratic function is ...