12. Apply When a stepladder is placed as shown, is it possible for the lower ends of the ladder to

be 12 feet apart? Explain.

1. when "a" is a root of a polynomial, (x -a) is a factor of it. for the three roots given, the factors of the desired polynomial are (x +2)(x -1/2)(x -3).

in order to make the leading coefficient be negative, we need to multiply this product by a negative number. any negative number will do, but we choose a small (magnitude) value that will eliminate the fraction: -2.

then

f(x) = -2(x +2)(x -1/2)(x -3) = -(x +2)(2x -1)(x -3)

= -(2x² +3x -2)(x -3)

= -(2x³ -3x² -11x +6)

f(x) = -2x³ +3x² +11x -6

2. a graph created by the desmos on-line graphing calculator is shown, and the zeros are highlighted.

3. as indicated in part 1, the multiplier of this equation can be anything and the zeros will remain the same. you want a negative leading coefficient, so the "anything" is restricted to any of the infinite number of numbers that will make that be the case.

first, let's see what the pattern is.

58 - x = 47

46 - x = 36

x = 9

so this means that the term after 25 is 25 - 9:

the next term in the sequence is 16.

the linear relationship that represents a variation in direct proportion is the linear function that varies according to the numbers of its domain, for example the cost of producing x number of items can be represented in direct proportion by f (x) = mx + b, where m is the constant of proportionality, x the number of articles produced and b the fixed cost