polynomial

1. mathematics An arithmetic expression composed by summing

multiples of powers of some variable.

P(x) = sum a_i x^i for i = 0 .. N

The multipliers, a_i, are known as "coefficients" and N, the

highest power of x with a non-zero coefficient, is known as

the "degree" of the polynomial. If N=0 then P(x) is constant,

if N=1, P(x) is linear in x. N=2 gives a "quadratic" and

N=3, a "cubic".

2. complexity polynomial-time.