Quadrinomials

Date: 02/26/2001 at 11:00:26
From: Morrill
Subject: Quadrinomial

My student is doing a research project for class and her word is 
"quadrinomial." She would like some information from you. She could 
not find any reference to it in the archives. If she is not entering 
the correct keyword, please let us know.

What is a quadrinomial and how is it used?

Date: 02/26/2001 at 12:07:57
From: Doctor Peterson
Subject: Re: Quadrinomial

Hi!

I've never seen the word, and it's not in my dictionary, but I can 
figure out what it has to mean. A "polynomial" in algebra is an 
expression consisting of a sum of terms, each of which is the product 
of some number and a power of one or more variables. A "monomial" is a 
polynomial with one term; a binomial and trinomial have two and three 
terms. So a "quadrinomial" would be a polynomial with four terms.

To find more about this, you'll want to look up "polynomial."

I'm not surprised that the word isn't in our archives, because it 
isn't used often. A Google search revealed a number of references to 
the word, including several like this one:

  For What It's Worth - Educational Standards
  http://www.execpc.com/~jfish/fwiw/fwiw0061.txt   

An example of a "homogeneous quadrinomial of the third degree," 
referred to there, is

     x^3 + 3x^2 y + 4x y^2 + 5y^3

where ^ indicates an exponent. This consists of four terms 
(quadrinomial), each of which is the product of a constant and three 
variables (homogenous, third degree).

- Doctor Peterson, The Math Forum
  http://mathforum.org/dr.math/