Topics:
• Reminders about how we find the domains of polynomials, rational functions, and radical functions from their formulas. Please see this previous post for my summary.
• Polynomials: vocabulary. Most of this should be familiar to you from previous math courses, but make sure that you can understand and can use all of these:
Vocabulary: related to polynomials:
term
monomial (also binomial, trinomial)
coefficient
variable
constant term
degree of a term
descending order
leading term, leading coefficient
degree of a polynomial
Note:
a 1st degree polynomial is also called linear
a 2nd degree polynomial is also called quadratic
a 3rd degree polynomial is also called cubic
there are special names for some other higher degree polynomials, but they are not as often used
• Long division of polynomials
Vocabulary: related to long division:
• dividend
• divisor
• quotient
• remainder
Long division of polynomials follows essentially the same procedure as long division with numbers, but parts of it are even easier. It is important to be very careful to line up like terms in the division, and slow down for the subtraction step, which is where most errors occur.
Homework:
Please watch this video from Khan academy, which discusses several examples of long division of polynomials in a similar way to what I did in class:
Here is another video with more examples
• Do the WeBWorK: please do not wait to the last minute!
• For more practice, do the following from the textbook: Exercise 8.1(a-c and j-k) – we did (a) in class, of course.
• You could put one of those problems on the board next time for extra quiz points – this also applies if you give a student solution to a question posted on Piazza.
• Make sure that you have done the homework from the previous two classes (problems from the textbook). I may request that some of them be done on the board as well.
• There will be a quiz next time on the topics: one-to-one functions, and finding an inverse function’s formula.
Don’t forget, if you get stuck on a problem, you can post a question on Piazza. Make sure to give your question a good subject line and tell us the problem itself – we need this information in order to answer your question. And please only put one problem per posted question!
