Question #73c55

1 Answer
Sep 6, 2017

Three.

Explanation:

Think about a what a cubic function is. #y=x^3# is the parent cubic function. You know that #x^3# means you have three #x#'s. In the parent function, the only solution is zero, so all three #x#'s#=0#.
You could have a cubic function, too, made of three distinct factors, like #(x-3)(x+2)(x-1)#, which multiplies out to #x^3 -5x+6#.
You could have one or three real solutions to a cubic expression with one variable.

We call the largest exponent a variable has in polynomials like this the "degree" of the polynomial. This is exactly the number of solutions any polynomial has, though sometimes they will be complex solutions with imaginary parts, but that's probably another unit...
Hope that helps!