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sisyphus

Member

Registered: 2016-05-15

Posts: 26

Factoring help

The exercise:

Use polynomial long division to perform the indicated division. Write the polynomial in the form p(x) = d(x)q(x) + r(x).

(2x^3-x+1) / (x^2+x+1)

The answer given by the book is:

(2x^3-x+1) = (x^2+x+1)(2x-2)+(-x+3)

What i don't understand is how am i supposed to find q(x) and r(x) when (x^2+x+1) cannot be factored into smaller factors (which i could use for the long division, to find the quotient and the remainder).

Last edited by sisyphus (2016-08-31 18:46:38)

thickhead

Member

Registered: 2016-04-16

Posts: 1,086

Re: Factoring help

The exercise:

Use polynomial long division to perform the indicated division. Write the polynomial in the form p(x) = d(x)q(x) + r(x).

The answer given by the book is:

What i don't understand is how am i supposed to find q(x) and r(x) when (x^2+x+1) cannot be factored into smaller factors (which i could use to find the quotient and the remainder).

Last edited by thickhead (2016-08-31 19:10:11)

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sisyphus

Member

Registered: 2016-05-15

Posts: 26

Re: Factoring help

I have just figured it out, sorry for the useless post . I thought for some reason that you can only divide by the form (x-c) and not by the whole quadratic.

The answer usually dawns on me (if i am able to figure it out) when i make a thread trying to explain what i don't understand.