Investigation of the Graphs of the equation

While varying d.


by
Jennifer Roth

First let us look at the graph of

for d=0. We get the following picture.

Now let's look at negative values for d. If we overlay the graphs of d = -9, -7, -5, -3, -1, we get the following picture.

It appears that d is not changing the shape of the graph, but shifting is along the x axis, and for negative values for d it is shifting the graph to the left. It appears also that it is shifting the graph so that the minimum value for x remains -2, and at this point, the value for y=d. Let's look at the positive values for d and see if we can make any conclusions.
If we set

for d = 9, 7, 5, 3, and 1 we get the following picture.

If you refer back to the picture for negative values of d, you can see that a similar thing is going on here.
If we set y = 0 for the equation to get

and graph the equation in the xb plane we get the following picture.

This is what we would expect, since in our graphs above, for each value of d, the equation

has two roots. So for varying values of d, the graph of the equation will cross the x-axis for values for x that lie on these two lines.
Now, you might think what if we changed the value -2 to something else. At the point in which this value is 0, you would have only one root for x, x=0, For values greater than 0 you would have not roots for x, and for values less than 0 you will always get 2 roots. Again, if you change this value, you are only changing the position of the graph, not the shape.
What if you were to change the degree of the equation? What would happen to the shape of the graph?


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