Education Technology


Precalculus: Products of Linear Functions

by Texas Instruments

Objectives

  • Students will understand relationships between the horizontal intercepts of two linear functions and the horizontal intercepts of the quadratic function resulting from their product.
  • Students will understand relationships between the slopes of two linear functions and the orientation and width of the quadratic function resulting from their product.
  • Students will understand when the product of two linear functions will not be quadratic.
  • Students will explore the relationship between linear factors and the resulting cubic function.

Vocabulary

  • linear function
  • quadratic function
  • cubic function
  • roots
  • intersect

About the Lesson

This lesson involves polynomial functions viewed as a product of linear functions.
As a result, students will:

  • Manipulate linear functions to change the graph of their product to meet certain constraints.
  • Make and test predictions about how the properties of linear functions affect the graphs of their quadratic or cubic product functions.