Long Division of Polynomials

Long division of polynomials is very similar to long division of numbers (most likely you didn’t
learn short division of numbers ). Anyway, you look at the first term of the divisor and divide it into
the first term of the dividend .

so in the case of ( y³ - y² - 4y - 7) ( y +1)

you would divide y into y ³ resulting in y² as shown.

	then multiply the quotient by the divisor as in number division and place the result underneath in the appropriate columns.
	The next step is where a mistake is often made, you need to subtract just as you would in number division.
	It is helpful here to distribute the minus sign, then add.
	So that your result is
	Now bring down the next term (as you would bring down the next digit in number division)
	Now divide y into -2y2 to get -2y and multiply the quotient
	by the divisor as before. Remember again you want to subtract .
	which gives you
Again, bring down the next term and divide . Multiply by quotient .
	distribute the negative and add
So that the quotient (answer) is: