Adding and Subtracting Polynomials

In this section, we review some basics about polynomials, along with adding and subtracting polynomials. When we add or subtract polynomials, we must revisit the definition of a like term. A term is a number, variable, or the product of a number and one or more variables raised to powers. Like terms are two or more terms that have the exact same variable or variables, raised to the exact same power or powers. We add and subtract polynomials by combining like terms. This process is just an extension of the distributive property. We will also cover some of the basic definitions regarding polynomials. A monomial is a single term polynomial, whereas a binomial is a two-term polynomial, and a trinomial is a three-term polynomial. When we write a polynomial, we typically want to use standard form. We write a polynomial in one variable in standard form by placing the terms in descending order of powers. This means the term in which the variable has the highest exponential power goes to the first position on the left, followed by the next largest, and so on and so forth.