Finding Irrational Roots of Polynomials

The Canadian Mathematics Teacher – Volume 1

Winter 1982

Publication of the Mathematics Council of The Alberta Teachers’ Association

19 – 20

Finding Irrational Roots of Polynomials

Donald E. Rideout

In the honors course in Grade 11, as well as in Mathematics 1010 at Memorial, one spends considerable time teaching how to find, when they exist, rational roots of a polynomial with integer coefficients. Several worth-while topics are usually taught or recalled at this time, namely the Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic to prove the main theorem about possible rational roots, the relationship between roots and linear factors, and synthetic division as a fast way of checking the possible rational roots.