Is this a polynomial...?

Question

8y^4x + 6x^3

And what is its degree?

Answer 1

It is a polynomial with a degree of 5. You add up the exponents on each term and take the largest one to find the degree.

In your example, you have:
8 * y^4 * x^1 --> degree 5
6 * x^3 --> degree 3

So the degree of the polynomial is 5.