EXERCISE 4.1 METRIC MATH
A polynomial looks like this: example of a polynomial this one has 3 terms Polynomial comes from poly- (meaning "many") and -nomial (in this case meaning "term") ... so it says "many terms" A polynomial can have: constants (like 3 , −20 , or ½ ) variables (like x and y ) exponents (like the 2 in y 2 ), but only 0, 1, 2, 3, ... etc are allowed that can be combined using addition, subtraction, multiplication and division ... ... except ... ... not division by a variable (so something like 2/x is right out) So: A polynomial can have constants, variables and exponents, but never division by a variable. Also they can have one or more terms, but not an infinite number of terms. Polynomial or Not? These are polynomials: 3x x − 2 −6y 2 − ( 7 9 )x 3xyz + 3xy 2 z − 0.1xz − 200y + 0.5 512v 5 + 99w 5 5 (Yes, "5" is ...