A
polynomial is an expression of one variable in the form
anxn + an-1xn-1 + ... + a2x2 + a1x + a0, where
a0, a1,…, an are
real numbers with
an≠ 0 and
n is a positive integer. Many real-life
situations are easily modeled by
polynomial functions. Some of the most
familiar are
quadratic functions, which are
functions of the form
f (x) = ax2 + bx + c.
Other polynomial functions are also commonly seen in mathematical models. In
the following sections we'll study the general form of polynomials, what a
polynomial function looks like, and how to find the
roots of a given
polynomial function. The roots of a polynomial function are the values of
x
for which the function equals zero. In a related topic, we'll take a look at
rational functions, which are functions that can be written as a quotient of
two polynomials. After an in-depth look at polynomial functions, they will be
easy to deal with in calculus.
