The Roots of Polynomials

This PowerPoint presentation (of 24 slides) covers the relationship between the roots of quadratic, cubic and quartic polynomials and their coefficients.

These relationships are derived algebraically, and worked examples are provided explaining typical A-level questions.

If you want to try out this presentation, you can download a free, sample PowerPoint slideshow.

Slides are included to remind students of how the graph of the polynomial is related to the number of real roots, including repeated roots.

The standard results for the “sum of reciprocals”, “sums of squares” and “sum of cubes” of the roots of quadratics, cubics and quartics are derived and used.

The presentation finishes with applying the newly learned knowledge to graph transformations.

I have kept the presentation style as simple as possible, using the “appear” animation extensively to build up each slide.

I have also included teacher’s notes for each slide.

In summary, this PowerPoint presentation provides everything you need to teacher this A-level Further Mathematics topic.

I hope you find this resource useful within your teaching practice.

I would be very happy to receive any feedback you might have.

Regards and best wishes,

Gerard