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Assumed Knowledge Notes.

The following very brief notes cover a few of the basic things you should know from Extension 1 Mathematics before attempting the Assumed Knowledge Quiz. For further assistance, you should consult a high school text book. You may also nd the worksheets at http://www.maths.unsw.edu.au/currentstudents/revision-worksheets helpful. Polynomials. 1. Basics: A polynomial is an expression of the form p(x) = an xn + an1 xn1 + ... + a1 x + a0 where the co-ecients ai are real numbers. e.g. 5x3 + 2x + 3, 7 x7 + 2 2x3 . Note that x3 + 2x 2 1 is NOT a polynomial.
1

We say that n is the degree of the polynomial p(x), and write deg(p(x)) = n. If the polynomial is non-zero constant then it has degree 0. The zero polynomial does not have a degree. an is called the leading co-ecient and a0 is called the constant term. If an = 1 we say that the polynomial is monic. e.g. p(x) = x7 + 3x3 + 1 is a monic polynomial of degree 7. In this section we are going to see how to factor polynomials (if possible) and use this to solve polynomial equations. 2. Operations on Polynomials: We can add and subtract polynomials in the obvious way, for example (3x7 2x5 + x4 9x 10) + (2x5 + 7x4 2x3 + 12) = 3x7 + 8x4 2x3 9x + 2. We multiply polynomials using long multiplication, e.g. (x3 2x2 + 5x 1) (x 2) We simply expand the brackets to obtain x(x3 2x2 + 5x 1) 2(x3 2x2 + 5x 1) = x4 4x3 + 9x2 11x + 2. Polynomials can also be divided using the long division algorithm from primary school. Ex: Divide x4 3x3 + 2x 4 by (x 1).

x1

x3 2x2 2x )x4 3x3 + 0x2 + 2x 4 x4 x3 2x3 + 0x2 2x3 + 2x2 2x2 + 2x 2x2 + 2x 0x 4

The quotient is x3 2x2 2x and the remainder is 4. Thus we can write x4 3x3 + 2x 4 = (x 1)(x3 2x2 2x) 4. We can do this for any pair of polynomials, in fact: Given polynomials a(x), b(x), we can nd polynomials q (x) and r(x) such that a(x) = q (x)b(x) + r(x) where the degree of the remainder r(x) is less than the degree of the divisor b(x), or r(x) = 0. Ex: Divide x5 2x3 + 1 by x3 + 2. We do the division to obtain x5 2x3 + 1 = (x2 2)(x3 + 2) + (5 2x2 ) and the degree of the remainder is 2 which is less than the degree of the divisor, 3. 3. The Remainder and Factor Theorems: If we divide by a linear factor (x a) then the remainder can be obtained without actually doing the division. Theorem: (The Remainder Theorem) If the polynomial p(x) is divided by x a then the remainder is simply p(a). Proof: We write p(x) = (x a)q (x) + r where r is a constant since it has degree smaller than 1, i.e. degree 0. Put x = a in both sides and the result follows. Ex: Find the remainder when p(x) = x3 2x2 + 5x 1 is divided by x 1. p(1) = 3 so the remainder is 3. Ex: Find the remainder when p(x) = x3 + 6x2 13x 42 is divided by x + 2. p(2) = 8+24+26 42 = 0 so the remainder is 0. This means that x +2 is a factor of p(x). If one polynomial q (x) exactly divides another polynomial p(x) we say that q is a factor of p. In particular, a linear polynomial x a is a factor of a polynomial p(x) if the remainder 2

p(a) is zero. We can exploit this idea to factorise polynomials. Theorem: (The Factor Theorem) If p() = 0 then x is a factor of p(x). Ex: Factorise p(x) = x3 8x2 + 5x + 14. p(1) = 0, p(1) = 0 so (x + 1) is a factor. Also p(2) = 0 so x 2 is a factor. We can divide p(x) by (x + 1)(x 2) to obtain p(x) = (x 2)(x + 1)(x 7). Ex: Solve x3 8x2 + 5x + 14 = 0. In factored form this says (x 2)(x + 1)(x 7) = 0 and so x = 2, 1, 7. In practice, if the constant term is a, we try all the (positive and negative) factors of a. Ex: Solve p(x) = x3 + 4x2 7x 10 = 0. p(1) = 0, p(1) = 0 so p(x) = (x + 1)(x2 + 3x 10) = (x + 1)(x + 5)(x 2) and hence the roots are 1, 5, 2. The Binomial Theorem. Please read the Sheet on The Binomial Theorem at http://www.maths.unsw.edu.au/currentstudents/revision-worksheets

The Factorial Function and n Cr Notation: The notation n! means we multiply n(n 1)(n 2)...4.3.2.1. For example, 5! = 5 4 3 2 1 = 120. This in fact counts the number of ways that 5 people can stand in a straight line. We read n! as n factorial and this function is built into your calculator. Note that we dene 0! to be 1. We also use the notation n Cr also written as
n

n r

to mean

Cr =

n! r!(n r)!

Ex. Find 8 C3 , 5 C0 . From the calculator (or by hand) 8 C3 = 56 and 5 C0 = 1.

The numbers in Pascals triangle are given by the n Cr formula. In fact, we can write (1 + x) = 1 C0 + 1 C1 x (1 + x)2 = 2 C0 + 2 C1 x + 2 C2 x2 (1 + x)3 = 3 C0 + 3 C1 x + 3 C2 x2 + 3 C3 x3 (1 + x)4 = 4 C0 + 4 C1 x + 4 C2 x2 + 4 C3 x3 + 4 C4 x4 and so on. The general form is (1 + x)n =
n

C0 +

C1 x +

C2 x2 + ... +

Cn xn

and more generally again, we have (a + b)n =


n

C0 an +

C1 an1 b +

C2 an2 b2 + ... +

Cn bn

Generally, when expanding out we use Pascals triangle rather than the n Cr formula, but the formula is very useful in doing other more theoretical problems. The general term in the expansion of (a + b)n is n n anr br . Cr anr br = r
1 12 Ex: Find the co-ecient of x8 and the constant term in the expansion of (2x3 x ) .

12 212r x364r (1)r . Now r 12 36 4r = 8 when r = 7 and so the coecient of x8 is 25 (1)7 = 25344. 7 The general term is
1 r (2x3 )12r ( x ) =

12 r

The constant term will appear when 36 4r = 0 and so r = 9. Hence the constant term is 12 23 (1)9 = 1760. 9 Integration by Substitution. Many integrals can be performed by making a change of variable. Ex. Find I = xex dx, using u = x2 .
du dx
2

Put u = x2 , then then becomes

= 2x. Hence we can symbolically replace x dx by I= 1 2 1 1 2 eu du = eu + C = ex + C. 2 2

du . 2

The integral

Harder Inequalities. Please read the Sheet on Polynomial Inequalities at 4

http://www.maths.unsw.edu.au/currentstudents/revision-worksheets Ex. Solve


x1 x+1

5.

To solve this we multiply top and bottom by the square of (x + 1) which will not aect the inequality sign, since this quantity is positive (provided x = 1). Thus x1 x1 5 (x + 1)2 5 (x + 1)2 (x 1)(x + 1) 5(x + 1)2 . x+1 x+1 Now move the terms to the right hand side and factorise, giving (x + 1)[(5(x + 1) (x 1)] 0 (x + 1)(4x + 6) 0. . Thus the solution is x > 1 or x 3 2 This last step is done by sketching the graph of y = (x + 1)(4x + 6), as shown in the sheet on Polynomial Inequalities. Note that you CANNOT multiply by (x + 1) as a rst step since we do not know if this is positive or negative. Further Trigonometry Please read the sheet on Trigonometric Identities at http://www.maths.unsw.edu.au/currentstudents/revision-worksheets Ex. Convert sin x cos x into the form R sin(x + ). Expanding R sin(x + ) we have R sin x cos + R cos x sin = sin x cos x. Now equate the cooecients of sin x and cos x to obtain R cos = 1 R sin = 1. 2. Dividing the

Squaring the adding these equations gives R2 = 2 so we may take R = equations gives tan = 1 and so we may take = . 4 Hence sin x cos x = ). 2 sin(x 4 2.

Note that this gives us the amplitude of the wave sin x cos x to be

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