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For polynomials in two or more variables, the degree of a term is the sum of the exponents of the variables in the term; the degree (sometimes called the total degree) of the polynomial is again the maximum of the degrees of all terms in the polynomial. For example, the polynomial x 2 y 2 + 3x 3 + 4y has degree 4, the same degree as the term x ...
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.
Moreover, if one sets x = 1 + t, one gets without computation that () = (+) is a polynomial in t with the same first coefficient 3 and constant term 1. [2] The rational root theorem implies thus that a rational root of Q must belong to { ± 1 , ± 1 3 } , {\textstyle \{\pm 1,\pm {\frac {1}{3}}\},} and thus that the rational roots of P satisfy x ...
The names for the degrees may be applied to the polynomial or to its terms. For example, the term 2x in x 2 + 2x + 1 is a linear term in a quadratic polynomial. The polynomial 0, which may be considered to have no terms at all, is called the zero polynomial. Unlike other constant polynomials, its degree is not zero.
the multiplicative order, that is, the number of times the polynomial is divisible by some value; the order of the polynomial considered as a power series, that is, the degree of its non-zero term of lowest degree; or; the order of a spline, either the degree+1 of the polynomials defining the spline or the number of knot points used to ...
The coefficient of the highest-degree term in the polynomial is required to be 1. More formally, a minimal polynomial is defined relative to a field extension E/F and an element of the extension field E/F. The minimal polynomial of an element, if it exists, is a member of F[x], the ring of polynomials in the variable x with coefficients in F.
Sometimes the word "order" is used with the meaning of "degree", e.g. a second-order polynomial. However, where the "degree of a polynomial" refers to the largest degree of a non-zero term of the polynomial, more typically "order" refers to the lowest degree of a non-zero term of a power series.
Polynomial interpolation also forms the basis for algorithms in numerical quadrature (Simpson's rule) and numerical ordinary differential equations (multigrid methods). In computer graphics, polynomials can be used to approximate complicated plane curves given a few specified points, for example the shapes of letters in typography.