1Cademy - Finding the Degree of Polynomials

Example

Finding the Degree of Polynomials

To find the degree of a polynomial, identify each term's degree and select the largest one:

$10y$ : The variable $y$ has an exponent of 1 (since $y = y^1$ ), so the degree is 1.
$4x^3 - 7x + 5$ : The term degrees are 3, 1, and 0. The highest is 3.
$-15$ : A constant has no variable, so the degree is 0.
$-8b^2 + 9b - 2$ : The term degrees are 2, 1, and 0. The highest is 2.
$8xy^2 + 2y$ : The first term has degree $1 + 2 = 3$ (sum of exponents on $x$ and $y$ ), and the second term has degree 1. The highest is 3.