Jeff and Debbie join different gyms at the same time. Jeff pays a $40 enrollment fee and $16 per month. Debbie’s gym has a free enrollment and she pays $18 per month. After how many months will Jeff and Debbie have paid the same amount for their gym membership?

1. when "a" is a root of a polynomial, (x -a) is a factor of it. for the three roots given, the factors of the desired polynomial are (x +2)(x -1/2)(x -3).

in order to make the leading coefficient be negative, we need to multiply this product by a negative number. any negative number will do, but we choose a small (magnitude) value that will eliminate the fraction: -2.

then

f(x) = -2(x +2)(x -1/2)(x -3) = -(x +2)(2x -1)(x -3)

= -(2x² +3x -2)(x -3)

= -(2x³ -3x² -11x +6)

f(x) = -2x³ +3x² +11x -6

2. a graph created by the desmos on-line graphing calculator is shown, and the zeros are highlighted.

3. as indicated in part 1, the multiplier of this equation can be anything and the zeros will remain the same. you want a negative leading coefficient, so the "anything" is restricted to any of the infinite number of numbers that will make that be the case.

1st integer x

2nd integer x+1

3rd integer x+2

4th integer x+3

x+x+1 +x+2+x+3 =74

combine like terms

4x+6 = 74

subtract 6 from each side

4x = 68

x = 17

the integers are 17,18,19,20