How do you find the degree of $P(x) = x^3(x+2)(x-3)^2$ ?

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Answer 1 · 2018-05-07T09:54:27

$P(x)$ has degree 6

$P(x) = x^3(x+2)(x-3)^2$

The degree of a polynomial is highest degree of its individual terms.

In this example we could expand $P(x)$ into its individual terms but in this case that is unnecessary.

Consider the highest degree of each of the factors of $P(x)$ .

$x^3$ has degree 3

$(x+2)$ has highest degree 1

$(x-3)^2$ has highest degree 2

Hence the degree of $P(x) = 3+1+2 = 6$

How do you find the degree of P(x) = x^3(x+2)(x-3)^2 P(x) = x^3(x+2)(x-3)^2 ?