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Example Questions
Example Question #1 : How To Find The Degree Of A Polynomial
What type of equation is the following?
(y + 2)(y + 4)(y + 1) = z
linear
quadratic
constant
quartic
cubic
cubic
The degree of a polynomial is the highest exponent of the terms.
Degree 0 – constant
Degree 1 – linear
Degree 2 – quadratic
Degree 3 – cubic
Degree 4 – quartic
Multiply out the equation:
(y + 2)(y + 4)(y + 1) = z
(y2 + 2y + 4y + 8)(y + 1) = z
y3 + 2y2 + 4y2 + 8y + y2 + 2y + 4y + 8 = z
The highest exponent is y3;therefore the equation is a degree 3 cubic.
Example Question #1 : Polynomial Operations
Find the degree of the polynomial:
The degree of a polynomial is determined by the term with the highest degree. In this case that is , which has a degree of
.
Example Question #2 : Polynomial Operations
What is the degree of the following polynomial?
The degree of a polynomial is determined by the term with the highest degree. In this case, the first term, , has the highest degree,
. The degree of a term is calculated by adding the exponents of each variable in the term.
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