Calculus Help

this won't help, but your thread made me realize...

ask on yahoo answers, those people are crazy and will answer any question.

im just too lazy to type out all the answers.

Dude, like one problem is fine to ask, but its pretty obvious you aren't making much of an effort.  C'mon, asking like 5 separate calculus questions on NS?  Why don't you narrow it down to one or two you truly don't understand, and then I'm sure a lot more people would be willing to help you.

to your first question, yes multiply it all by -1

to the rest of them:
http://www.wolframalpha.com/

i'm actually trying pretty hard dude. the test is 3 fucking pages long. and it's not mostly space to work either. it's not like they're hard questions either for somebody that may specialize in this area.

Hey ns.. doing a take home test and I could really use some clutch help. I need a good grade on this.

So first question, when I am evaluating f(x+1) and I end up with -x^2+4x+3 how can I get rid of that negative? can I put a positive in front and switch 4 and 3 to negative? I know thats a pretty basic question but I can't figure it out.

Second question, the problem is: Sketch the graph of f(x) x^4-5x^2+4 by factoring the function first. Label all intercepts. Obviously you guys can;t show me how to graph because they are pretty complex but for the factoring I need help. I got that a factor of it is 1.

after synthetic division or substitution (don't know which one it is haha) the quotient on the bottom is 1 1 -4. Which turns into x^2+x-4, but where do I go from there? Is 1 a triple root. No other factors worked. Not either positive or negative 4 or 2. So i'm pretty confused here.

Third question, when sketching y=x^3-4x. I did....

take out an x: x(x^2-4)
x(x-2)(x+2)
so some intercepts are o,2, and -2. And I know the height is 4 but is it negative or positive. I can't tell if it switches like when they are in the parenthesis.

That's it for now, i'm sure a few more will pop up. Thanks guys.

1) Multiply by -1..why couldn't you?  End up with x^2-4x-3.

2) Should be factored out to (x^2-4)(x^2-1).  Were you asking something different?

3) Is what negative or positive?  It is going to go up and down because it is cubed.  Height isn't 4.  If you differentiate the function and set y=0 you will get the maximum value for x.  Plug that in to the original function to get the height.

So first question, when I am evaluating f(x+1) and I end up with -x^2+4x+3 how can I get rid of that negative? can I put a positive in front and switch 4 and 3 to negative? I know thats a pretty basic question but I can't figure it out.

For #1 if it is set equal to zero just move it to the other side so you have 0 = x^2-4x-3 so yeah ur right there

Second one you can factor, its (x^2-4)(x^2-1) so thats (x-2)(x+2)(x-1)(x+1)

Third one you have all you need to graph it...so your x-intercepts are 0,2, and -2. You can find the y-intercept by plugging in 0 for x, so the y-intercept is 0 here. Your leading coefficient is positive so the graph should go up to the right and down to the left since its cubic. So it should start in the 3rd quadrant, go up through (-2,0) go back down through (0,0), then back up through (2,0). Hope that helped.

Hm. Major brainfart on the second one. (x^2-4)^2+(x^2-1)^2 should be read as (x^2-4)(x^2-1). The intercepts are still right.

alright i can't quote everyone but thanks a ton guys. They all make sense now. i'm getting through this test pretty well. thanks again!

i hate calculus so much. right now we are doing derivatives of inverse trig functions and shit like that and its just so rediculous. you think you have it right but then its nothing like what it is supposed to be.

"So first question, when I am evaluating f(x+1) and I end up with -x^2+4x+3 how can I get rid of that negative? can I put a positive in front and switch 4 and 3 to negative? I know thats a pretty basic question but I can't figure it out.

Second question, the problem is: Sketch the graph of f(x) x^4-5x^2+4 by factoring the function first. Label all intercepts. Obviously you guys can;t show me how to graph because they are pretty complex but for the factoring I need help. I got that a factor of it is 1.

after synthetic division or substitution (don't know which one it is haha) the quotient on the bottom is 1 1 -4. Which turns into x^2+x-4, but where do I go from there? Is 1 a triple root. No other factors worked. Not either positive or negative 4 or 2. So i'm pretty confused here.

Third question, when sketching y=x^3-4x. I did....

take out an x: x(x^2-4)
x(x-2)(x+2)
so some intercepts are o,2, and -2. And I know the height is 4 but is it negative or positive. I can't tell if it switches like when they are in the parenthesis."

1. get rid of the negative? try dividing the equation by x+1

2. so factor that out... (x^2-4)(x^2-1) which factors out to (x+2)(x-2)(x+1)(x-1). so on your graph, mark 2, -2, 1, -1. then your graph is going to go through all those lines if you know what i mean (not bounce or curve like a x^3 graph) with parabolic up end behaviors

3. to graph x(x-2)(x+2), your going to have a x^3 end behavior, and so starting at the top right, your going to go down through 2, then curve it back up and go through 0, then curve it back down and go through -2 down to the bottom left.

wheres the calculus? looks like algebra 2 to me

yea thats no calculus

they were some easy questions but I asure you its calculus. I didn't take algebra 2 because i'm "excelerated". I took the last year of Math 3 and 2nd to last year of Math 2. Now they've changed the names and the curriculum has changed. I'm not sure about algebra 2 but I don't think you learn synthetic stuff until pre-calc.

i learned that shit before pre calc in public high school.

 yeah it will make the x positive and the rest negative