Rational Zeros of Polynomials, Answer 1

Find all rational zeros of the polynomial

Rational zeros of the form

satisfy the following: p divides the constant coefficient 6; q divides the leading coefficient 1. The choices for p are:

, the only choices for q are:

. Thus p/q is one of the following:

Check each of these 8 candidates by plugging the values into the polynomial:

P(1)=8, P(-1)=0, P(2)=0, P(-2)=-100, P(3)=0, P(-3)=-600, P(6)=3108, P(-6)=-13320. Thus the rational zeros of the polynomial P(x) are .

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Helmut Knaust
Tue Jun 24 12:39:39 MDT 1997