Foundations

Introduction

Vocabulary

Terms of a polynomial are separated by addition. The example below is a polynomial with four terms.

polynomial_term

A variable is the unknown quantity represented by a letter, such as x in the example. A coefficient is the number in front of the variable in each term. If there is a subtraction sign, then the coefficient is negative. A constant is a number without a variable.

polynomial_coefficients


In this case, the coefficient of 4x3 is 4, the coefficient of 2x2 is 2, the coefficient of -3x is -3, and the constant is 1.