Identify degree of each polynomial and degree of polynomial. x^5 - 2x + x^9 - 6x^7?

Question

Identify degree of each polynomial and degree of polynomial. x^5 - 2x + x^9 - 6x^7

degree of first term_________
degree of 2nd term_________
degree of 3rd term_________
degree of 4th term_________
degree of polynomial term_________

Answer 1

The degree of a specific term is the exponent of the variable:
degree of 1st term: 5
degree of 2nd term: 1
degree of 3rd term: 9
degree of 4th term: 7
The degree of the polynomial is the max of all the degrees: 9

Answer 2

The degree of each term is asking what is each x term raised to the power of. Like in -6x^3, the power is 3. For the degree of the polynomial, you look for the biggest degree out of all of them, which would be that 3 from -6x^3. And that plain ol' 6 has a degree of 0 because there is no x. Well there's an x^0 because that will end up being 1.