Question

What is the leading term, leading coefficient, and degree of this polynomial `y = 4x^2 −3x + 7`?

Answer 1

Leading term: `3x^2`
Leading coefficient: `4`
Degree: `2`

Explanation:

The degree of a polynomial is the largest exponent of a variable for any term in the polynomial (for polynomials in more than one variable it is the largest sum of exponents for any term).

The leading term is the term with the largest degree. Note that the leading term is not necessarily the first term of the polynomial (unless the polynomial is written in something called canonical form).

The leading coefficient is the constant within the leading term.