(worth 17 points)
the function p(x) = x(x-5)(x-2)(x+3) has four zeros. what is the smallest zero?

You'll set all of them separately to 0
like this...

x=0
x-5=0
x-2=0
x+3=0

then you solve for x

x=0 will be x=0

x-5=0 will become x=5 because 5 gets added on both sides.

x-2=0 becomes x=2 because 2 gets added on both sides.

x+3=0 becomes x= -3 because 3 gets subtracted from both sides.

So the zeros would be {-3,0,2,5}

and looking at these the smallest zero would be -3.