polynomial

<mathematics>

1. An arithmetic expression composed by summing multiples of powers of some variable. 

 P(x) = sum a_i x^i for i = 0 .. N
The multipliers, a_i, are known as "coefficients" and N, the highest power of x with a non-zero coefficient, is known as the "degree" of the polynomial. If N=0 then P(x) is constant, if N=1, P(x) is linear in x. N=2 gives a "quadratic" and N=3, a "cubic".

<complexity>

2. polynomial-time.

Nearby terms:

polymorphism ♦ polynomial ♦ polynomial-time ♦ polynomial-time algorithm

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