Monday, October 1, 2012

Unit G Summary Question #9: X-intercept

Describe how to find the x-intercepts of a rational function. Include both the long way and the shortcut way, explaining why the shortcut makes mathematical sense.

To find the x-intercept, you have to plug in 0 for y in the factored equation, both the numerator and the denominator. That is the "long" way. The shortcut way would be just plugging in 0 for the numerator. This makes sense because if you plug in 0 for the denominator, the denominator will eventually cancel after it is multiplied to zero which is done to get the numerator by itself.

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