Question

Which Question Has roots of x= -2 and x

Answer 1

See explanation below.

Explanation:

The 'difference between roots and factors of an equation' is not a straightforward question. Let's define both to establish the link between the two..

Assume we have some function of a single variable

x

;

we'll call this

f

(

x

)

Then we can form an equation:

f

(

x

)

=

0

Then the "roots" of this equation are all the values of

x

that satisfy that equation. Remember that these values may be real and/or imaginary.

Now, up to this point we have not assumed anything about

f

x

)

. To consider factors, we now need to assume that

f

(

x

)

=

g

(

x

)

⋅

h

(

x

)

.

That is that

f

(

x

)

factorises into some functions

g

(

x

)

×

h

(

x

)

If we recall our equation:

f

(

x

)

=

0

Then we can now say that either

g

(

x

)

=

0

or

h

(

x

)

=

0

.. and thus show the link between the roots and factors of an equation.

[NB: A simple example of these general principles would be where

f

(

x

)

is a quadratic function that factorises into two linear factors.