 in mathematics, a polynomial is an expression consisting of variables (or indeterminates) and coefficients, that involves only the operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and non-negative integer exponents. an example of a polynomial of a single indeterminate (or variable), , is , which is a quadratic polynomial. polynomials appear in a wide variety of areas of mathematics and science. for example, they are used to form polynomial equations, which encode a wide range of problems, from elementary word problems to complicated problems in the sciences; they are used to define polynomial functions, which appear in settings ranging from basic chemistry and physics to economics and social science; they are used in calculus and numerical analysis to approximate other functions. in advanced mathematics, polynomials are used to construct polynomial rings and algebraic varieties, central concepts in algebra and algebraic geometry. ==etymology== according to the oxford english dictionary, polynomial succeeded the term binomial, and was made simply by replacing the latin root bi- with the greek poly-, which comes from the greek word for many. the word polynomial was first used in the 17th century.etymology of "polynomial". compact oxford english dictionary == notation and terminology== the x occurring in a polynomial is commonly called either a variable or an indeterminate. when the polynomial is considered for itself, x is a fixed symbol which does not have any value (its value is "indeterminate"). it is thus more correct to call it an "indeterminate". however, when one considers the function defined by the polynomial, then x represents the argument of the function, and is therefore called a "variable". many authors use these two words indifferently, but this may be sometimes confusing and is not done in this article. it is a common convention to use upper case letters for the indeterminates and the corresponding lower case letters for the variables (arguments) of the associated function. it may be confusing that a polynomial p in the indeterminate x may appear in the formulas either as p or as p(x). normally, the name of the polynomial is p, not p(x). however, if a denotes a number, a variable, another polynomial, or, more generally any expression, then p(a) denotes, by convention, the result of substituting x by a in p. for exam
Algebra Polynomials