Polynomials
Subject:
By now, you should be familiar with variables and exponents, and you may have dealt with expressions like 3x4 or 6x. Polynomials are sums of these "variables and exponents" expressions. Each piece of the polynomial, each part that is being added, is called a "term". Polynomial terms have variables which are raised to whole-number exponents (or else the terms are just plain numbers); there are no square roots of variables, no fractional powers, and no variables in the denominator of any fractions. Here are some examples:Notice the exponents on the terms. The first term has an exponent of 2; the second term has an "understood" exponent of 1; and the last term doesn't have any variable at all.
