Playing with Positive Polynomials - Dr Robin McLean
26th January 2019
I'll introduce polynomials and show how the ability to multiply them enables
some long multiplication sums to be done mentally. Most of the talk will be
about polynomials f(x) that take positive values when x > 0. If ax^2 + bx + c
has this property, what can be said about a, b and c? Do they all have to
be positive? I'll share my own thought processes in discovering some little-known results about quadratics, and will try to help students with the algebraic manipulation needed to find the simplest of these results for themselves
and to appreciate the more difficult ones.