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Layers of Pascal's pyramid derived from coefficients in an upside-down ternary plot of the terms in the expansions of the powers of a trinomial – the number of terms is clearly a triangular number. In mathematics, a trinomial expansion is the expansion of a power of a sum of three terms into monomials. The expansion is given by
For instance, the polynomial x 2 + 3x + 2 is an example of this type of trinomial with n = 1. The solution a 1 = −2 and a 2 = −1 of the above system gives the trinomial factorization: x 2 + 3x + 2 = (x + a 1)(x + a 2) = (x + 2)(x + 1). The same result can be provided by Ruffini's rule, but with a more complex and time-consuming process.
A rational fraction is the quotient (algebraic fraction) of two polynomials. Any algebraic expression that can be rewritten as a rational fraction is a rational function. While polynomial functions are defined for all values of the variables, a rational function is defined only for the values of the variables for which the denominator is not zero.
This definition of exponentiation with negative exponents is the only one that allows extending the identity + = to negative exponents (consider the case =). The same definition applies to invertible elements in a multiplicative monoid , that is, an algebraic structure , with an associative multiplication and a multiplicative identity denoted 1 ...
This implies that a primitive polynomial is irreducible over the rationals if and only if it is irreducible over the integers. This implies also that the factorization over the rationals of a polynomial with rational coefficients is the same as the factorization over the integers of its primitive part.
Sometimes one or more roots of a polynomial are known, perhaps having been found using the rational root theorem. If one root r of a polynomial P ( x ) of degree n is known then polynomial long division can be used to factor P ( x ) into the form ( x − r ) Q ( x ) where Q ( x ) is a polynomial of degree n − 1.
The fundamental theorem of arithmetic states that any natural number can be written in only one way (uniquely) as the product of prime numbers. For example, 42 equals the product of prime numbers 2 × 3 × 7 , and no other product of prime numbers equals 42, aside from trivial rearrangements such as 7 × 3 × 2 .
When working with polynomials over the field of the rational numbers, it is useful to work only with polynomials with integer coefficients. In this case, the condition on the leading coefficients in the definition of a reduced basis may be replaced by the condition that all elements of the basis are primitive polynomials with integer ...