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Functions of Roots and Linear Transformations of Roots

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4 views

Functions of Roots and Linear Transformations of Roots

Uploaded by

lol12160.0002
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Chapter Overview

This chapter is about the underlying relationship between the coefficients of a polynomial (e.g.
the in ) and the roots of a polynomial (i.e. the values of which make the polynomial 0).

1:: Use relationships between coefficients and 2:: Find the value of expressions
roots of a quadratic, cubic or quartic equation. based on the roots of a polynomial.
“Given that , find the value of if the sum of the “Without explicitly finding the roots
roots is 4.” of , determine the sum of the
squares of its roots.”

3:: Find the new polynomial when the roots


undergo a linear transformation.
“The quartic equation has roots and . Find the
equation with roots
and ).”

Teacher Notes:
This topic is completely new
to the Edexcel A Level
syllabus. It used to be covered
in the pre-2017 OCR syllabus.
Evaluation
a and b are roots of the quadratic

2
x  7 x  2 0 .

What is the value of

(3  a)(3  b) ?
Evaluation
a and b are roots of the quadratic x 2  7 x  2 0 .
What is the value of (3  a )(3  b) ?

Notes and solution


Using the usual relationships it can be deduced that

ab = 2 and a + b = -7.

Now (3  a )(3  b) 9  3( a  b)  ab .
Since ab = 2 and a + b = -7 this evaluates to -10.
Expressions related to the roots of a polynomial
We have seen that we can calculate the sum of the roots and the product of the
roots of a polynomial without needing to find the roots themselves.

We also saw earlier that for quadratic equations, we could find expressions for the
sum of the squares of the roots, or the sum of the reciprocals of the roots, both in
terms of and (whose values could both be easily evaluated):

Sum of squares of roots:


Sum of reciprocals:

Such identities can be extended to cubics and quartics: (You can use these results without proof)

! Sums of squares:
• Quadratic:
• Cubic:
• Quartic:
Sums of cubes: (We can see these cubes formulae don’t generalise nicely as
we increase the order of the polynomial. For this reason you
• Quadratic: are not required to know the sum of cubes for quartics)

• Cubic:
Example
[Textbook] The three roots of a cubic equation are and . Given that , and , find the
value of

The strategy as before is to manipulate the


expression so that we have it in terms of , , etc.
Expanding will do in this case.

( 𝛼+3 )( 𝛽+3 )( 𝛾+3 ) ?


Exercise 4D
Pearson Core Pure Mathematics Book 1
Pages 63-64
Linear Transformations of Roots
Suppose we transform the roots of a polynomial.
𝑝 (𝑥 ) 𝑝 (𝑥 )
𝜶→ 𝜶 −𝟏

-2 5
𝑥 𝑥
-3 4

𝑝 ( 𝑥 )= ( 𝑥+2 )( 𝑥−5 ) 𝑝 ( 𝑥 )= ( 𝑥+3 )( 𝑥−4 )


If the polynomial was in
factorised form, then the
transformation is obvious: we
can just replace each root
with 1 less in the equation.
However, it’s not so obvious how this affects the
polynomial in form. How do the coefficients
change?
Continuing this example
On the previous slide, we had the polynomial which has the roots and . Without
finding the roots, determine the equation with roots and .

Method 1: Use relationship Method 2: Use a substitution


between roots and coefficients. (probably recommended over Method 1)

Using original polynomial: Use a new variable to


represent the
Let ? transformed value.
?
For new polynomial with roots :
Sum of roots: ?
Product of roots:
? ?
Letting , then
Note: The above is effectively a “Pure Year
1”/GCSE-style method involving function
? transformations.
We know the roots have been translated 1 left.
Therefore if , we know we can find to have this
effect.
?
Quartic Example
[Textbook] The quartic equation has roots . Find the equation with roots , , and .

Method 1: Use relationship between Method 2: Use a substitution


roots and coefficients. (Do this instead)
(Absolutely horrible)
Let ?
Using original polynomial: Substituting:
For new polynomial with roots : ?
Root sum:
Multiply by 16:
Pair-product sum: ?
…
Letting , then ?
?
Test Your Understanding
The cubic equation has roots . Find the equation with roots , , and .

Let
Substituting:

Multiply by 27: ?
Exercise 4E
Pearson Core Pure Mathematics Book 1
Pages 66-67
What is the point of all this?
We have an algebraic relationship between the roots of a polynomial and its coefficients.
This is useful for example if there is incomplete information for one or both of these. For
example, if one of the roots was missing, we could find it by adding the other roots and
subtracting from . Similarly, if there was some unknown coefficient, we could reason
about it using knowledge of the roots. I’d therefore consider this topic as adding to your
‘algebraic toolkit’, in this case reasoning about polynomials, even if the application isn’t
immediately obvious.

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