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Higher order polynomials

Polynomials are Functions of the form $f (x) = a_{n} x^{n} + a_{n - 1} x^{n - 1} + \dots + a_{1} x + a_{0}$ , where $a_{n} \neq 0$ and $n \in Z$ .

Higher order conventionally refers to any polynomial with a degree greater than quadratic.

Terminology

Term	Description
leading term	The term with the highest power
leading coefficient	Leading term’s coefficient
monic	When the leading coefficient is 1
degree	Index of the leading term (e.g. a cubic function is a polynomial of degree 3)
constant term	The term independent of $x$