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Nice Cubic Polynomials, Pythagorean Triples, and the Law of Cosines

by Jim Buddenhagen (Southwestern Bell Telephone Co.), Charles Ford (St. Louis University), and Mike May (St. Louis University)

This article originally appeared in:
Mathematics Magazine
October, 1992

Subject classification(s): Algebra and Number Theory | Algebra | Polynomial Equations | Number Theory | Diophantine Equations | Geometry and Topology | Trigonometry
Applicable Course(s): 3.0 Calculus | 3.1 Mainstream Calculus I | 3.4 Non-mainstream Calc I

The authors discuss a systematic way of constructing cubic polynomials with rational roots and critical points.


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