Question

What are the leading coefficient and degree of the polynomial?

Answer 1

Answer:

• leading coefficient: 2
• degree: 7

Step-by-step explanation:

The degree of a term with one variable is the exponent of the variable. The degrees of the terms (in the same order) are ...

  6, 0, 7, 1

The highest-degree term is 2x^7. Its coefficient is the "leading" coefficient, because it appears first when the polynomial terms are written in decreasing order of their degree:

  2x^7 -7x^6 -18x -4

The leading coefficient is 2; the degree is 7.

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Additional comment

When a term has more than one variable, its degree is the sum of the exponents of the variables. The term xy, for example, is degree 2.