give an example of using polynomials in real life situations?

Answer 1

One real life polynomial that is very useful is the equation of motion of an object, which is a quadratic equation in time.

s(t)=(1/2)a(t^2) +vt +s(0) , where a is the acceleration, v the inital velocity (velocity of the object at t=0) and s(0) is the distance it started at t=0. And yes, this is used all the time in engineering and especially with trajectory (except it is a two-dimensional case and you have x(t) and y(t) but these both are the same as the above equation).

Although it is too difficult to write it here, look up Taylor Series Expansion! The essence of this is that you can break down a continuous function of x into a series with increasing powers of x. This is very useful in approximating the numerical value of a function for a given value of x, especially if x turns out to be small, because the higher terms are so small they can be ignored. I have used this many, many times in my research and labwork, and it is a very real world application!

To the people voting me down, at least I know of them and too bad you wasted the questioners time for 2 pts saying either no none, or yeah but i have no clue! That's why I voted you down, lili and mojo, and i'll vote up anybody who answers this well.

Answer 2

Here's one real life application.

Suppose we are planning on mulching an irregularly shaped flower bed in our yard. The bed is located at one corner of the yard, and it's determined to be roughly the shape of a square and a trapezoid combined.

We want to buy enough mulch to cover the entire area, less that occupied by the plants, to a depth of 3 inches. To do this, we must first know the area we are going to cover. We draw up a visual representation of the bed and take appropriate measurements along its length on both sides and its width in the area approximated by the square. Then we make these assignments:

L1 = length containing square
L2 = length along other side
S = length of edge of square
L1 - S = height of trapezoid

After making some visual judgments, we conclude that plants occupy about 20% of the area in the square region and 25% in the trapezoidal region. Now we make these calculations:

Total Area (A) = (1-0.20)Square Area + (1-0.25)Trapezoidal Area
= 0.80(S^2) + 0.75[(1/2)(L1-S)(L2+S)]
= 0.80(S^2) + 0.375(L1L2+L1S-L2S-S^2)
= (0.80-0.375)S^2 + 0.375(L1L2+L1S-L2S)
= (0.80-0.375)S^2 + 0.375[(L1L2)+S(L1-L2)]
= (0.425)S^2 + 0.375[(L1L2)+S(L1-L2)]

Then we simply plug in our measured values in their appropriate places and complete the calculations to find the area. We can then multiply this by the depth of the mulch, converted to feet, to calculate the entire volume of mulch we will need to do the job.

What we have done here is to create an equation solving a real life situation, and containing multiple terms. Hence it is by definition a polynomial (many numbers).

Answer 3

i have never had to use them. my dad though, is an electrical engineer and he used to show me how he used them in his line of work- I can't remember now exactly what he was showing me but i guess my point is, yes, they are useful in someone's line of work.

Answer 4

There are none trust me. I am in Calculus III. None in and of themselves, they are merely a means to an end, because they are merely functions that define graphs.