Question

How do you identify the degree of each term of the polynomial and the degree of the polynomial `-7x^3+9x^2+3x+5`?

Answer 1

The degree of a term is the power, to which the unknown is raised. So the degree of `-7x^3` is 3 (`x` is raised to the third power)
The degree of `9x^2` is 2 (`x` is raised to the second power)
The degree of `3x` is 1 `(x=x^1)`
The degree of the free term (number without any unknowns) in this case 5 is zero because you could write it as `5x^0`.

The degree of a polynomial is the highest degree of all the terms of the polynomial. In this case the highest degree of a term is 3, so the polynomial has a degree of 3.