Question

In a polynomial division problem, the dividend does not have an x4-term. When the problem is written in long division form, what should be the coefficient of the x4-term in the dividend?

A.4
B.0
C.-1
D.1

Answer 1

B. 0
Whenever the coefficient of a term is 0, it is not written in a polynomial because the product of the term and its coefficient becomes 0 and adding or subtracting 0 has no significance.

Answer 2

the dividend should be like this ax^n + bx^n-1 + cx^n-2 + dx^n-3 +....+ constant. the x4 term is dx^n-3, so the coefficient d must be =0
the answer is B: 0