Rational root theorem and synthetic division.
Over a 10-yr period, the balance of payments (deficit versus surplus) for a small county was modeled by the function f
where x = 0 corresponds to 1990 and f(x) is the deficit or surplus in millions of dollars.
(a) Use the rational roots theorem and synthetic division to find the years the country " broke even" (dept = surplus = 0) from 1990 to 2000.
(b) How many years did the county run a surplus during this period?
(c) What was the surplus/deficit in 1993?