Given:
The power generated by an electrical circuit (in watts) as a function of its current x (in amperes) is modeled by
To find:
The current which will produce the maximum power.
Solution:
We have,
Differentiate with respect to x.
...(i)
To find the extreme point equate P'(x)=0.
Divide both sides by -30.
Differentiate (i) with respect to x.
(Maximum)
It means, the given function is maximum at x=4.
Therefore, the current of 4 amperes will produce the maximum power.
The fundamental theorem of algebra states that a polynomial with degree n has at most n solutions. The "at most" depends on the fact that the solutions might not all be real number.
In fact, if you use complex number, then a polynomial with degree n has exactly n roots.
So, in particular, a third-degree polynomial can have at most 3 roots.
In fact, in general, if the polynomial has solutions
, then you can factor it as
So, a third-degree polynomial can't have 4 (or more) solutions, because otherwise you could write it as
But this is a fourth-degree polynomial.