Monomials and Polynomials

Date: Thu, 31 Aug 1995 00:26:44 -0400
From: Anonymous
Subject: math

 I really don't understand monomials and polymials. could you help explain
them simply? I can't understand the instructions that come with them and 
my dad sounds just like those instructions. Please help.     

Date: 9/1/95 at 16:32:45
From: Doctor Ken
Subject: Re: math

Hello!

There's actually not all that much to know about monomials and polynomials.
Here are some examples of some monomials:
 x
 3y
 8
 5b^2 (That's 5 b squared)
 3xy

Now, the way you make a polynomial is to take a whole bunch (at least 2) of
monomials and add them together.  So here are some polynomials:
 x + 1
 x^2 + x + 1
	5x + y^2
	1 + x + x^2 + x^3 + x^4 + ... + x^n

So there you have it.  You can do a lot of stuff with monomials, and that's
what a high school algebra course is.  For instance, you can learn how to 
turn this:
3x^2 - 7x - 20

into this:
(x-4)(3x+5)

But that's another story.

-Doctor Ken,  The Geometry Forum