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The graph of a degree 1 polynomial (or linear function) f(x) = a0 + a1x, where a1 ≠ 0, is an oblique line with y-intercept a0 and slope a1. The graph of a degree 2 polynomial. f(x) = a0 + a1x + a2x2, where a2 ≠ 0. is a parabola. The graph of a degree 3 polynomial. f(x) = a0 + a1x + a2x2 + a3x3, where a3 ≠ 0.
In mathematics, the degree of a polynomial is the highest of the degrees of the polynomial's monomials (individual terms) with non-zero coefficients. The degree of a term is the sum of the exponents of the variables that appear in it, and thus is a non-negative integer. For a univariate polynomial, the degree of the polynomial is simply the ...
A root of a polynomial is a zero of the corresponding polynomial function. [1] The fundamental theorem of algebra shows that any non-zero polynomial has a number of roots at most equal to its degree , and that the number of roots and the degree are equal when one considers the complex roots (or more generally, the roots in an algebraically ...
In mathematics, Descartes' rule of signs, described by René Descartes in his La Géométrie, counts the roots of a polynomial by examining sign changes in its coefficients. The number of positive real roots is at most the number of sign changes in the sequence of polynomial's coefficients (omitting zero coefficients), and the difference ...
Quadratic function. In mathematics, a quadratic function of a single variable is a function of the form [1] where is its variable, and , , and are coefficients. The expression , especially when treated as an object in itself rather than as a function, is a quadratic polynomial, a polynomial of degree two.
In mathematics, the term linear function refers to two distinct but related notions: [1] In calculus and related areas, a linear function is a function whose graph is a straight line, that is, a polynomial function of degree zero or one. [2] For distinguishing such a linear function from the other concept, the term affine function is often used ...
In mathematics, a quadratic form is a polynomial with terms all of degree two ("form" is another name for a homogeneous polynomial). For example, is a quadratic form in the variables x and y. The coefficients usually belong to a fixed field K, such as the real or complex numbers, and one speaks of a quadratic form over K.
If the constant term is 0, then it will conventionally be omitted when the quadratic is written out. Any polynomial written in standard form has a unique constant term, which can be considered a coefficient of . In particular, the constant term will always be the lowest degree term of the polynomial. This also applies to multivariate polynomials.