Clock is always associated with time.

The beginning of time is dated back when the Egyptian people

created the twenty four hours. Thats why the Egyptian people were the one who take the credit of the first

people who knew about time. The discovery of Galileo and Galileo made a big contribution to the

invention of pendulum clock in 1900.

Polynomials: The Rule of Signs

A special way of telling how many positive and negative roots a polynomial has.

A Polynomial looks like this:

example of a polynomial
this one has 3 terms

Polynomials have "roots" (zeros), where they are equal to 0:

Roots are at x=2 and x=4

It has 2 roots, and both are positive (+2 and +4)

Sometimes we may not know where the roots are, but we can say how many
are positive or negative ...

... just by counting how many times the sign changes

(from plus to minus, or minus to plus)
Let me show you with an example:

Example: 4x + x2 - 3x5 - 2

How Many of The Roots are Positive?

First, rewrite the polynomial from highest to lowest exponent (ignore any
"zero" terms, so it does not matter that x4 and x3 are missing):

-3x5 + x2 + 4x - 2

Then, count how many times there is a change of sign (from plus to minus, or
minus to plus):

The number of sign changes is the maximum number of positive roots

There are 2 changes in sign, so there are at most 2 positive roots (maybe
less).

So there could be 2, or 1, or 0 positive roots ?

But actually there won't be just 1 positive root ... read on ...

Complex Roots
There might also be complex roots.
 A Complex Number is a combination of a Real Number and an Imaginary
Number

But ...

Complex Roots always come in pairs!

Always in pairs? Yes. So we either get:

no complex roots,

2 complex roots,

4 complex roots,

etc

Improving the Number of Positive Roots

Having complex roots will reduce the number of positive roots by 2 (or by
4, or 6, ... etc), in other words by an even number.
So in our example from before, instead of 2 positive roots there might
be 0 positive roots:

Number of Positive Roots is 2, or 0

This is the general rule:

The number of positive roots equals the number of sign changes, or a value
less than that by some multiple of 2

Example: If the maximum number of positive roots was 5, then there could
be 5, or 3 or 1 positive roots.

How Many of The Roots are Negative?

By doing a similar calculation we can find out how many roots are negative ...

... but first we need to put "-x" in place of "x", like this:

And then we need to work out the signs:

- 3(-x)5 becomes + 3x5

+ (-x)2 becomes + x2 (no change in sign)

+ 4(-x) becomes - 4x

So we get:

+3x5 + x2 - 4x - 2
The trick is that only the odd exponents, like 1,3,5, etc will reverse their sign.

Now we just count the changes like before:

One change only, so there is 1 negative root.

But remember to reduce it because there may be Complex Roots!

But hang on ... we can only reduce it by an even number ... and 1 cannot be
reduced any further ... so 1 negative root is the only choice.

Total Number of Roots

On the page Fundamental Theorem of Algebra we explain that a polynomial

will have exactly as many roots as its degree (the degree is the highest
exponent of the polynomial).

So we know one more thing: the degree is 5 so there are 5 roots in total.

What we Know
OK, we have gathered lots of info. We know all this:

positive roots: 2, or 0
 negative roots: 1

total number of roots: 5

So, after a little thought, the overall result is:

5 roots: 2 positive, 1 negative, 2 complex (one pair), or

5 roots: 0 positive, 1 negative, 4 complex (two pairs)

And we managed to figure all that out just based on the signs and
exponents!

Must Have a Constant Term

One last important point:

Before using the Rule of Signs the polynomial must have a constant
term (like "+2" or "-5")

If it doesn't, then just factor out x until it does.

Example: 2x4 + 3x2 - 4x

No constant term! So factor out "x":

x(2x3 + 3x - 4)

This means that x=0 is one of the roots.

Now do the "Rule of Signs" for:

2x3 + 3x - 4

Count the sign changes for positive roots:

 There is just one sign change,
So there is 1 positive root

And the negative case (after flipping signs of odd-valued exponents):

There are no sign changes,

So there are no negative roots

The degree is 3, so we expect 3 roots. There is only one possible combination:

3 roots: 1 positive, 0 negative and 2 complex

And now, back to the original question:

2x4 + 3x2 - 4x

Will have:

4 roots: 1 zero, 1 positive, 0 negative and 2 complex

Positive real roots. For the number of positive real roots, look at
the polynomial, written in descending order, and count how many
times the sign changes from term to term. This value represents
the maximum number of positive roots in the polynomial. For
example, in the polynomial f(x) = 2x4 9x3 21x2 + 88x + 48, you
see two changes in sign (dont forget to include the plus sign of
the first term!) from the first term (+2x4) to the second (-9x3)
 and from the third term (-21x2) to the fourth term (88x). That
means this equation can have up to two positive solutions.

Descartess rule of signs says the number of positive roots is

equal to changes in sign of f(x), or is less than that by an even
number (so you keep subtracting 2 until you get either 1 or 0).
Therefore, the previous f(x) may have 2 or 0 positive roots.

Negative real roots. For the number of negative real roots,

find f(x) and count again. Because negative numbers raised to
even powers are positive and negative numbers raised to odd
powers are negative, this change affects only terms with odd
powers. This step is the same as changing each term with an
odd degree to its opposite sign and counting the sign changes
again, which gives you the maximum number of negative roots.
The example equation becomes f(x) = 2x4 + 9x3 21x2 88x +
48, which changes signs twice. There can be, at most, two
negative roots. However, similar to the rule for positive roots, the
number of negative roots is equal to the changes in sign for f(x),
or must be less than that by an even number. Therefore, this
example can have either 2 or 0 negative roots.
Names of Angles

As the Angle Increases, the Name Changes:

Type of Angle Description

Acute Angle an angle that is less than 90

Right Angle an angle that is 90 exactly

an angle that is greater than 90 but

Obtuse Angle
less than 180

Straight Angle an angle that is 180 exactly

Reflex Angle an angle that is greater than 180

Try It Yourself:
2015 MathsIsFun.com v0.86
In One Diagram

This diagram might make it easier to remember:

Also: Acute, Obtuse and Reflex are in alphabetical order.

Also: the letter "A" has an acute angle.

Be Careful What You Measure

This is an Obtuse Angle And this is a Reflex Angle

But the lines are the same ... so when naming the angles make sure
that you know which angle is being asked for!

Positive and Negative Angles

When measuring from a line:

 a positive angle goes counterclockwise (opposite direction that clocks
go)

a negative angle goes clockwise

Example: 67

Parts of an Angle

The corner point of an angle is called the vertex

And the two straight sides are called arms

The angle is the amount of turn between each arm.

How to Label Angles

There are two main ways to label angles:

1. give the angle a name, usually a lower-case

letter like a or b, or sometimes a Greek letter
like (alpha) or (theta)

2. or by the three letters on the shape that define

the angle, with the middle letter being where the
angle actually is (its vertex).

Example angle "a" is "BAC", and angle "" is

"BCD"

Solving Direct Variation Problems Practice Problem

If y varies directly as x, and x = 9 when y = 15, find y when

x = 33.

If c varies directly as the square root of d, and c = 14 when

d = 64, find c when d = 324.
If y varies inversely as x, and y = 32 when x = 3, find x when
y = 15.

The frequency of a vibrating guitar string varies inversely as its

length. Suppose a guitar string 0.65 meters long vibrates 4.3
times per second. What frequency would a string 0.5 meters
long have?
If y varies jointly as x and z, and y = 33 when x = 9 and z = 12,
find y when x = 16 and z = 22.

For a given interest rate, simple interest varies jointly as principal

and time. If $2000 left in an account for 4 years earns interest
of $320, how much interest would be earned in if you deposit
$5000 for 7 years?