How do you divide #(2x^3 - 7x^2 - 17x - 3) / (2x+3)#?

1 Answer
Nov 5, 2015

#(2x^3-7x^2-17x-3)/(2x+3) = x^2-5x-1#

Explanation:

There are several ways to do this. I will give a brief demonstration of two of them:

synthetic division

#{: (,,2,-7,-17,-3), (+,,(0),-3,15,3), (,,"-----","-----","-----","-----"), (/(2),"|",2,-10,-2,color(blue)(0)), (color(white)("XX")xx(-3),"|",color(red)(1),color(red)(-5),color(red)(-1),) :}#

long polynomial division

#{: (,,color(red)(x^2),color(red)(-5x),color(red)(-1),), (,,"-----","-----","-----","-----"), (2x+3,")",2x^3,-7x^2,-17x,-3), (,,2x^3,+3x^2,,), (,,"-----","-----",,), (,,,-10x^2,-17x,), (,,,-10x^2,-15x,), (,,,"-----","-----",), (,,,,-2x,-3), (,,,,-2x,-3), (,,,,"-----","-----"), (,,,,,color(blue)(0)) :}#

Post a comment here (or ask a new question) if you want to see the details of either of these methods.