I'm not coming up with the correct solution here... which is probably my long time lack of factoring polynomials. I'm not looking for a solution, just want to know if my math is wrong and if so, any good resources for relearning this...? http://pastebin.com/xVnZ84rQ

Question

anonymous · Answer

Is there a reason why you're sorting the polynomial list?  The polynomial list is already given as input in order of degree, so (5.0,2.3,0.0,6.0) would be equal to 5.0*x^0 + 2.3*x^1 + 0.0*x^2 + 6.0*x^3 (usually written the opposite way, but doing it this way is slightly easier to program).  If you resort that list, walking through the list and using the index as an exponent won't work.

anonymous · Answer

The 18.702-Algebra II (polinomial rings) uses 'Algebra (2nd Edition) - Michael Artin' ISBN: 9780132413770. Michael Artin is a professor emeritus in the MIT. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Artin. Although, very very basic knowledge of polynomials are required to follow this course.

anonymous · Answer

@shandelman Yep, I ended up figuring it out last night before bed. I was way overthinking it and the sort was actually swapping the powers of 9.3 and 7.0 which had me all kinds of confused... @jordibs Thanks for that resource as well.