Which polynomial is written in descending order?

Question

anonymous · Answer

$$9-3x+4x ^{2}$$
$$-3x+9+4x ^{2}$$
$$4x ^{2}+9-3x$$
$$4x ^{2}-3x+9$$

phi · Answer

you want the biggest powers (the little number on the upper right of the x) first, left to right.

anonymous · Answer

What? I don't get it..

phi · Answer

you want the x^2 term first, the x term second and the constant last.  Which of the 4 answers is in that order?

phi · Answer

big to small

anonymous · Answer

$$\Large x^9 + 2x^8 + 15x^7 -2x^6 +x^4 -30x^3 -10x^2$$
There's an example of a polynomial in descending order.

anonymous · Answer

$$\Large x +30x^2$$
There's an example of a polynomial that's NOT in descending order.

phi · Answer

notice that you use the exponent to decide who goes first.  the other numbers (coefficients) don't matter.

anonymous · Answer

So, the answer is $$9-3x+4x ^{2}$$

phi · Answer

the other way round.

anonymous · Answer

Oh.. $$4x ^{2}-3x+9$$ ?

phi · Answer

Yes.  That is standard form. 
Did you know that $ x^0 =1 $?
so we could write this as
$$ 4x^2-3x^1+9x^0 $$
do you see the pattern 2  1  0  (the exponents go down)

anonymous · Answer

I'm lost..

phi · Answer

what is your question?

phi · Answer

when you have a problem like this
|dw:1341185099195:dw|