Learning Outcomes
By the end of this lesson, you will be able to:
- Identify power functions.
- Describe end behavior of power functions given its equation or graph.
- Identify polynomial functions.
- Identify the degree and leading coefficient of polynomial functions.
- Describe the end behavior of a polynomial function.
- Identify turning points of a polynomial function from its graph.
- Identify the number of turning points and intercepts of a polynomial function from its degree.
- Determine x and y-intercepts of a polynomial function given its equation in factored form.
In this section we will examine functions that are used to estimate and predict things like changes in animal and bird populations or fluctuations in financial markets.
We will also continue to learn how to analyze the behavior of functions by looking at their graphs. We will introduce and describe a new term called end behavior and show which parts of the function equation determine end behavior. We will also identify intercepts of polynomial functions.