What is the degree of the polynomial 5x³y² − 2xy + 7? (Degree = highest sum of exponents in any term.)

What is the degree of the polynomial $5 x^{3} y^{2} - 2 x y + 7$ ? (Degree = highest sum of exponents in any term.)

Class 8Algebraic Expressions and IdentitiesAlgebra

Term

5 x^{3}

y^{2}

has exponent sum 3 + 2 = 5;

- 2 x y

has 2; 7 has 0. The highest is 5, so the degree is 5.

Answer: C) 5

Use the distributive property — multiply the monomial by EVERY term in the polynomial.

Example:

3 x \times (4 x^{2} - 5 x + 2) = 12 x^{3} - 15 x^{2} + 6 x

.

When multiplying powers of the same variable: **add the exponents**.

x^{2} \times x^{3} = x^{5}

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