Higher Degree Polynomial Functions

So far your exploration of polynomial functions has been limited to quadratic polynomials. In this lesson you start to explore higher-degree polynomial functions. Before we start - some definitions:

The degree of a polynomial is the highest exponent that exists in the polynomial. For example:

• is a polynomial of degree 3 (also called a 'third-degree polynomial')
• is a polynomial of degree 7 (a 'seventh-degree polynomial')

There are some commonly used special names for polynomials of lower degrees:

• A polynomial of degree 1 can be called a linear polynomial.
• A polynomial of degree 2 can be called a quadratic polynomial (you have seen this already).
• A polynomial of degree 3 can be called a cubic polynomial.
• A polynomial of degree 4 can be called a quartic polynomial.

You can continue on and on with these special names (an octonomial? Sounds like a villian from Spiderman) but we commonly only use the above four.

Now that that is out of the way, what would you like help with?

• Factoring (includes the factor theorem and long division)
• Graphing Higher-Degree Polynomials

When you are done here you can head back to the Polynomial and Rational Function main page.