Polynomials - The Basics

I've got fed up with doing straight line geometry, as it needs diagrams, and I am having real difficulty drawing & importing them.

So to polynomials. Firstly, what is a polynomial? Well it is an expression involving numbers and powers of x. Such as:

2x + 1

3x² + 4x - 6

2x⁴ - 4x³ + 2x² +2


These are all polynomials. They are usually written, as here, in descending powers of x, from highest to lowest.

Sometimes they are called polynomials of degree x, depending on the highest power of x. So a cubic expression is a polynomial of degree 3, a quadratic of degree 2, a linear of degree 1 and a constant (ie just a number on its own) of degree 0 (because the highest power of x here is 0, ie x⁰ - ie 1).

Polynomials DO NOT have fractional or negative powers.

2x^-2 + 1

is not a polynomial.


That's the basics of it.