Operations with Polynomials
The use of letters in calculations is useful for solving problems as well as establishing some properties of numbers. We already know how to deal with an expression having letters and here we will study expressions having letters in a deeper way.
A term is a number, a variable, or a product of numbers and variables that have only positive exponents. A term or a monomial cannot have a variable as an exponent.
When a term contains both a number and a variable part, the number part is called the "coefficient".
A monomial or the sum of one or more monomials is called a polynomial.
Poly- a prefix meaning many or several; Nomial- means term, so polynomial means many terms
Degree of a term is the sum of the exponents on the variables in the term.
Degree of a polynomial is the degree of the highest degree term.
So to find the degree of a polynomial, find the degree of each term. The greatest of the degrees of its terms is the degree of the polynomial.
Practice: Identify and classify polynomials and find their degree in the following exercises.
Challenge yourself by answering the exercises below.
Operations with Polynomials 10
Operations with Polynomials 11