Polynomial You must have heard the word ‘polynomial’ or a ‘polynomial equation’. Algebra is obsessed with polynomials. You will find them everywhere. So, what is a polynomial then? Polynomial is just an expression that involves variables and constants with arithmetic operators (‘+’, ‘-‘, ‘×’, ‘÷’) in between. An example of a polynomial is, As you … Read more

Function Many people muddle up the concepts of ‘Equation’ and ’Function’. They are related but they are definitely not the same. You will see how. Let us first understand the idea of an ‘Equation’. An equation is defined as a mathematical relation (involving the ‘=’ symbol) between two or more variables. For instance, the following … Read more

Summary An inequality basically compares two statements with different values. An inequality is written with either a greater than sign ( >) or less than sign (< ). If we divide or multiply by a negative number, the direction of the inequality is changed. To solve a quadratic inequality we need to carry out the … Read more

Summary The modern study of set theory was initiated by Georg Cantor and Richard Dedekind in the 1870s. A set is a collection of distinct objects, called elements of the set. Set’s are denoted by upper case letters and they are enclosed in curly brackets  {….}. When we write , this means x belongs to … Read more

Summary Parametric equations are just rectangular equations consisting of two or more variables. At times it is convenient to express x and y in terms of a third variable which is called a parameter. Parametric equation includes one equation to define each variable. For example in parametric equations: x = a cos(t) and y = … Read more

Summary When the terms of a sequence are added together a series is formed. A series can be denoted by a sigma notation    where a is the first value of n terms, b is the last value of the n terms and x is the expression of the given sequence. The formula for n-th … Read more