Fundamental theorem of algebra - Math, Class 11 Video Lecture

Voiceover:The fundamental
theorem of algebra.
Fundamental, I'll write
it out, theorem of algebra
tells us that if we have
an nth-degree polynomial,
so let's write it out.
So let's say I have the function p of x
and it's defined by an
nth-degree polynomial.
So let's say it's a x to the
n plus b x to the n minus one
and you just go all the way to
some constant term at the end.
So this is an nth-degree polynomial.
The fundamental theorem
of algebra tells us
that this nth-degree
polynomial is going to have
n exactly n roots, or another
way to think about it,
there are going to be
exactly n values for x,
which will make this polynomial,
make this expression on the
right, be equal to zero.
So at first you might say,
"Okay, that makes sense."
You've seen second-degree polynomials,
whose graphs might look
something like this.
So, that's the y axis
and that's the x axis.
We know a second-degree polynomial
would define a parabola,
so it might look something like
this and you could buy that.
Okay, this is a second-degree,
that's second degree,
and you see that this function
equals zero at exactly two places.
It has exactly two roots.
It has two roots, so that seems consistent
with the fundamental theorem of algebra,
and you could also imagine
a third-degree polynomial
looking like this.
So that's my y axis.
This is my x axis.
You could imagine a
third-degree polynomial
looking something like this.
Bam, bam, bam, and it just keeps going.
And here you see it's a
third-degree polynomial,
and you'll see it has
one, two, three roots.
And I could have a
fourth-degree polynomial.
Maybe it looks something like this,
where it goes something like this,
and you say, "Okay, that makes sense."
It will have one, two, three, four roots.
But then you might
start to remember things
that don't always behave in this way.
For example, many, many, many times
we've seen parabolas, we've
seen second-degree polynomials
that look more like this, where they don't
seem to intersect the x axis.
So this seems to conflict with
the fundamental theorem of algebra.
The fundamental theorem of algebra says
if we have a second-degree polynomial
then we should have exactly two roots.
Now, this is the key.
The fundamental theorem of algebra,
it extends our number system.
We're not just talking about real roots,
we're talking about complex roots,
and in particular, the
fundamental theorem of algebra
allows even these
coefficients to be complex.
And so when we're looking
at these first examples,
these were all real roots,
and real numbers are a
subset of complex numbers.
So here you had two real roots.
Here you had three real roots.
In this orange function,
you had four real roots.
In this yellow function,
this yellow parabola right over here,
the second-degree polynomial,
we have no real roots.
That's why you don't see
it intersecting the x axis,
but we will have two complex roots.
So this one right over here
will have two complex roots.
And the complex roots, the
non-real complex roots,
because really real numbers are
a subset of complex numbers,
these always come in pairs,
and we'll see that in future videos.
So for example, if you have
a third-degree polynomial,
It might look something like this.
A third-degree polynomial
might look something like this,
where it has one real root,
but then the fundamental
theorem of algebra
tell us it necessarily has two other roots
because it is a third degree, so we know
that the other two roots must
be non-real, complex roots.
Now, could you have a
situation where you have a
third-degree polynomial
with three complex roots?
So, can you have three
non-real complex roots?
Is this possible for a
third-degree polynomial?
Well, the answer is no
because complex roots,
as we'll see in the next few videos,
always come in pairs.
They're coming in pairs
where they are conjugates of each other.
So, you could have a
fourth-degree polynomial
that has no real roots, for example.
Something might look something like this.
In this case, you would have
two pairs of complex roots
or you would have four
non-real complex roots
and you could group them into two pairs
where in each pair you have conjugates,
and we'll see that in the next video.