The Fundamental Theorem of Algebra Quick Check

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Question
Show that the Fundamental Theorem of Algebra is true for the quadratic polynomial x2−16x+39=0
through solving by factoring. Which of the following statements accurately describes the solution set?(1 point)
Responses

There are two irrational solutions.
There are two irrational solutions.

There are two rational solutions.
There are two rational solutions.

There are two non-real solutions.
There are two non-real solutions.

There are two identical solutions.

1 answer

To show that the Fundamental Theorem of Algebra is true for the quadratic polynomial \(x^2 - 16x + 39 = 0\) through solving by factoring, we first need to factor the quadratic expression.

We want to factor \(x^2 - 16x + 39\) into the form \((x - p)(x - q) = 0\), where \(p\) and \(q\) are the roots of the equation.

  1. To factor the quadratic, we can look for two numbers that multiply to \(39\) (the constant term) and add to \(-16\) (the coefficient of \(x\)). The factors of \(39\) are \(1, 3, 13, 39\).

  2. Upon inspection, we notice that the numbers \(-3\) and \(-13\) fit this criteria because:

    • \(-3 \times -13 = 39\)
    • \(-3 + -13 = -16\)

Thus, we can write the equation as: \[ (x - 3)(x - 13) = 0 \]

  1. Setting each factor to zero gives us the solutions: \[ x - 3 = 0 \quad \Rightarrow \quad x = 3 \] \[ x - 13 = 0 \quad \Rightarrow \quad x = 13 \]

Now we have found the solutions \(x = 3\) and \(x = 13\).

Analyzing the solution set:

  • Both \(3\) and \(13\) are rational numbers.
  • There are no non-real solutions since both solutions are real numbers.

Based on this, the correct statement that accurately describes the solution set is: There are two rational solutions.