chapter+9

Monomials: A monomial is a number, a variable, or the product if a number and one or more variables with whole number exponents. They have a degree which is the sum of all the exponents in the monomial. What a monomial looks like: 10 (has a degree of 0), 3x (has a degree of 1), 1/2(has a degree of 3), -1.8(has a degree of 5)

An equation that has a variable in the denominator or exponent, a negative exponent, or a sum ISN'T a monomial

A polynomial is a monomial or the sum of monomials. Each part of the polynomial is called a term. The degrees of these are the highest degree in all of the polynomial. If there are two terms its called a trinomial.

When you add polynomials you are adding like terms and you can use vertical or horizontal format. When subtracting polynomials you need to add the opposites and then you get your answer. To multiply polynomials you need to FOIL which is fairly simply. Example: (2x+3)(4x+1) you multiply 2x and 4x this is the F(Front) then 2x and 1 this is the O(Outside) next you multiply 3 and 4x this is the I(Inside) finally its 3 and 1 this is the L(Last). This is one of the fastest ways to multiply polynomials without a complicating pattern.

There is something called squaring binomials which is the+2ab+ which is one of the patterns from a previous chapter. It equals the equation it is a way to make solving polynomials easier and faster but only works if you have squares in the problem. You can manipulate the equation to make it have perfect squares but it is very tedious.

Another way is to find the roots of the equation or the zeroes of the equation. You need to work from where you stop at on the squaring method. From there you separate the two solutions and find out what numbers make them equal to zero.