Lesson: Real and Complex Roots of Polynomials Mathematics

Students will be able to

• understand the definition of the root of a polynomial,
• understand that the degree of a polynomial tells us the number of roots, including repeated roots,
• find the number of roots of a polynomial by using Descartes’ rule of sign change,
• find the roots of polynomials using
  • substitution,
  • synthetic division,
• understand that if a complex number is a root of a polynomial, then its conjugate is also a root,
• find the lowest degree polynomial with integer coefficients given the roots,
• find unknown coefficients of a polynomial given its roots.