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MATH / Suppose that a polynomial function p(x) crosses the horizontal line y=1 at exactly one point, crosses the horizontal line y=3 at exactly three points, and crosses the horizontal li…

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problem

Suppose that a polynomial function p(x)p(x) crosses the horizontal line y=1y = 1 at exactly one point, crosses the horizontal line y=3y = 3 at exactly three points, and crosses the horizontal line y=5y = 5 at exactly five points (pp is not tangent at any point to any of those three horizontal lines). What is the least possible degree of pp?
Plain-text mathematical notation (without MathML)
Suppose that a polynomial function p(x) crosses the horizontal line y=1 at exactly one point, crosses the horizontal line y=3 at exactly three points, and crosses the horizontal line y=5 at exactly five points (p is not tangent at any point to any of those three horizontal lines). What is the least possible degree of p?
Original LaTeX notation
Suppose that a polynomial function $p(x)$ crosses the horizontal line $y = 1$ at exactly one point, crosses the horizontal line $y = 3$ at exactly three points, and crosses the horizontal line $y = 5$ at exactly five points ($p$ is not tangent at any point to any of those three horizontal lines). What is the least possible degree of $p$?

level

Level 4

type

Intermediate Algebra

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