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For polynomials with more than one indeterminate, the combinations of values for the variables for which the polynomial function takes the value zero are generally called zeros instead of "roots". The study of the sets of zeros of polynomials is the object of algebraic geometry .
A root of a polynomial is a zero of the corresponding polynomial function. [1] The fundamental theorem of algebra shows that any non-zero polynomial has a number of roots at most equal to its degree , and that the number of roots and the degree are equal when one considers the complex roots (or more generally, the roots in an algebraically ...
This consists in using the last computed approximate values of the root for approximating the function by a polynomial of low degree, which takes the same values at these approximate roots. Then the root of the polynomial is computed and used as a new approximate value of the root of the function, and the process is iterated.
Graph of a polynomial function of degree 4, with its 4 roots and 3 critical points. + + + + = where a ≠ 0. The quartic is the highest order polynomial equation that can be solved by radicals in the general case (i.e., one in which the coefficients can take any value).
An example of a quintic whose roots cannot be expressed in terms of radicals is x 5 − x + 1 = 0. Some quintics may be solved in terms of radicals. However, the solution is generally too complicated to be used in practice. Instead, numerical approximations are calculated using a root-finding algorithm for polynomials.
Graph of a polynomial of degree 4, with 3 critical points and four real roots (crossings of the x axis) (and thus no complex roots). If one or the other of the local minima were above the x axis, or if the local maximum were below it, or if there were no local maximum and one minimum below the x axis, there would only be two real roots (and two complex roots).
In mathematics and computer science, Horner's method (or Horner's scheme) is an algorithm for polynomial evaluation.Although named after William George Horner, this method is much older, as it has been attributed to Joseph-Louis Lagrange by Horner himself, and can be traced back many hundreds of years to Chinese and Persian mathematicians. [1]
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 ...