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What are the leading coefficient and degree of the polynomial?

What are the leading coefficient and degree of the polynomial?-example-1

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Answer:

  • leading coefficient: 2
  • degree: 7

Explanation:

The degree of a term with one variable is the exponent of the variable. The degrees of the terms (in the same order) are ...

6, 0, 7, 1

The highest-degree term is 2x^7. Its coefficient is the "leading" coefficient, because it appears first when the polynomial terms are written in decreasing order of their degree:

2x^7 -7x^6 -18x -4

The leading coefficient is 2; the degree is 7.

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Additional comment

When a term has more than one variable, its degree is the sum of the exponents of the variables. The term xy, for example, is degree 2.

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