Left End Behavior & Sneaky Factors

What
Left End Behavior & Sneaky Factors
When
8/16/2019

We've gotten pretty good at figuring out the right end behavior from our a-value, but what about left end behavior? Knowing the degree can help.


Table explaining end behavior based on degree

In math, as in life, not everything is packaged the way we want it. If your factors are ugly, we just have to set each parentheses equal to zero and solve for x to find our x-intercepts. 

example of finding x-intercepts from ugly factors

Those ugly factors can also alter our a-value. Just multiply the leading coefficient by every x-coefficient (include exponents when they're there) and we can find the true a-value, which helps us find that right end behavior.

finding a-value from multiple x-coefficients

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