Talk:Polynomial long division

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My algebra is a bit rusty, but isn't this long division as well? I thought synthetic division involved separating out the coefficients and dividing by the additive inverse of the constant added to the divisor. Or something like that. Bloodshedder

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This isn't synthetic division. This is still Polynomial long division. I'm quite sure that synthetic division only involves the coefficients of the divisor and dividend and it only involves adding and multiplying steps.

E.g. solving

(x⁴ − 4x³ + 6x² − 4x + 1) / (x - 1)

using synthetic division

 1  -4   6  -4  1
     1  -3   3  1 
 1  -3   3  -1  0

we get the quotient:

x³ − 3x² + 3x − 1

--seav 21:42, Sep 8, 2003 (UTC)

Doh... stupid me... I'll move it then... sorry... I got them mixed up - Evil saltine 04:25, 9 Sep 2003 (EDT)

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could we be more clear about how the numbers switch from (in above example):

 |1  -4   6  -4  1
 |    1  -3   3  1 
 |1  -3   3  -1  0

to

x³ − 3x² + 3x − 1

??? I hate to be picky, but any help here would be hot, specifically, how do the variables and exponent thingys come in all of a sudden? hope i wasn't too vague. sorry i don't know what I'm talking about.

---QuiGonJinn

I added a little, hopefully it makes sense. Evil saltine 06:56, 19 Dec 2003 (UTC)

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I think it might be worth either including or linking to a proof of synthetic division.

Is there anywhere one can find an explanation concerning why this works, and not just how?

• I've added a gigantic section on the reasoning and development behind synthetic division. It's written in a way that is hopefully accessible to many people. Please feel free to make changes and improve on my ideas! HappyCamper 05:13, 26 Mar 2005 (UTC)

I'd say move most of the examples to another page or maybe another project, like Wikibooks; keep only the ones fundamental to understanding the process in this article and link to the others elsewhere. - dcljr (talk) 22:47, 4 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Generalizing to other rings

Does anyone know how easily this algorithm generalizes to other rings? I know that it will generalize to polynomials over the integers mod p, where p is prime, because the polynomials over a field form a Euclidean domain. But what about something like polynomials over the integers mod n, where n isn't prime? Are any other generalizations possible?

Jguthrie 19:12, 17 October 2005 (UTC)

I think the big problem is because in rings which are not fields very weird things can happen with polynomial coefficients, that is elements in the ring. Given two nonzero numbers in the ring, you can't always divide one by another. Worse, you can have two nonzero elements whose product is zero. That is to say, you run into trouble already when trying to divide constant polynomials, not to talk about polynomials actually contining X. So, I doubt polynomial long division generalizes in any way to arbitrary rings. Oleg Alexandrov (talk) 08:27, 18 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Length

This article is absurdly long. Is there any chance someone could cut it down a little (I am not mathematical enough to say what is worth keeping and what is not. Batmanand 11:32, 21 October 2005 (UTC)

Done. Oleg Alexandrov (talk) 19:33, 7 December 2005 (UTC)