Synthetic division 1

Synthetic division
Synthetic division is a method of performing polynomial long division, with less writing and fewer calculations. It
is mostly taught for division by binomials of the form

but the method generalizes to division by any monic polynomial. This method can be used instead of long division
on integers by considering 10 = x and only substituting 10 back in at the end.
The most useful aspect of synthetic division is that it allows one to calculate without writing variables using fewer
calculations. As well, it takes significantly less space than long division. Most importantly, the subtractions in long
division are converted to additions by switching the signs at the very beginning, preventing sign errors.
Synthetic division for linear denominators is also called division through Ruffini's rule.

Regular synthetic division

The first example is synthetic division with only a monic linear denominator .

Write the coefficients of the polynomial to be divided at the top (the zero is for the unseen 0x).

Negate the coefficients of the divisor.

Write in every coefficient of the divisor but the first one on the left.

Note the change of sign from −3 to 3. "Drop" the first coefficient after the bar to the last row.

Multiply the dropped number by the number before the bar, and place it in the next column.

Perform an addition in the next column.

Repeat the previous two steps and the following is obtained

Count the terms to the left of the bar. Since there is only one, the remainder has degree one. Mark the separation with
a vertical bar.
Synthetic division 2

The terms are written with increasing degree from right to left beginning with degree zero for both the remainder and
the result.

The result of our division is:

Expanded synthetic division

This method works for bigger divisors with only a slight modification with changes in bold. Using the same steps as
before, let's try to perform the following division:

We concern ourselves only with the coefficients. Write the coefficients of the polynomial to be divided at the top.

Negate the coefficients of the divisor.

Write in every coefficient but the first one on the left in an upward right diagonal (see next diagram).

Note the change of sign from 1 to −1 and from −3 to 3 . "Drop" the first coefficient after the bar to the last row.

Multiply the dropped number by the diagonal before the bar, and place the resulting entries diagonally to the right
from the dropped entry.

Perform an addition in the next column.

Repeat the previous two steps until you would go past the entries at the top with the next diagonal.

Then simply add up any remaining columns.

Synthetic division 3

Count the terms to the left of the bar. Since there are two, the remainder has degree two. Mark the separation with a
vertical bar.

The terms are written with increasing degree from right to left beginning with degree zero for both the remainder and
the result.

The result of our division is:

However, the diagonal format above becomes less space-efficient when the degree of the divisor exceeds half of the
degree of the dividend. It is easy to see that we have complete freedom to write each product in any row, as long as it
is in the correct column. So the algorithm can be compactified by a greedy strategy, as illustrated in the division
below.

For non-monic divisors

With a little prodding, the expanded technique may be generalised even further to work for any polynomial, not just
monics. The usual way of doing this would be to divide the divisor with its leading co-efficient (call it a)

then using synthetic division with as the divisor, and then multiplying the quotient by a to get the quotient of
the original division (the remainder stays the same). But this often produces unsightly fractions which get removed
later, and is thus more prone to error. It is possible to do it without first dividing the co-efficients of by a.
As can be observed by first performing long division with such a non-monic divisor, the co-efficients of are
divided by the leading co-efficient of after "dropping", and before multiplying.
Let's illustrate by performing the following division:

A slightly modified table is used:

Synthetic division 4

Note the extra row at the bottom. This is used to write values found by dividing the "dropped" values by the leading
co-efficient of (in this case, indicated by the /3; note that, unlike the rest of the co-efficients of , the sign
of this number is not changed).
Next, the first co-efficient of is dropped as usual:

and then the dropped value is divided by 3 and placed in the row below:

Next, the new (divided) value is used to fill the top rows with multiples of 2 and 1, as in the expanded technique:

The 5 is dropped next, with the obligatory adding of the 4 below it, and the answer is divided again:

Then the 3 is used to fill the top rows:

At this point, if, after getting the third sum, we were to try and use it to fill the top rows, we would "fall off" the right
side, thus the third value is the first co-efficient of the remainder, as in regular synthetic division. But the vaules of
the remainder are not divided by the leading co-efficient of the divisor:

Now we can read of the co-efficients of the answer. As in expanded synthetic division, the last two values (2 is one
less than the co-efficient of the divisor) are the co-efficients of the remainder, and the remaining values are the
co-efficients of the quotient:
Synthetic division 5

and the result is

See also
• Polynomial remainder theorem
• Euclidean domain
• Gröbner basis
• Greatest common divisor of two polynomials
• Horner scheme

References
• Linghao Fan (2003). "A Generalization of Synthetic Division and A General Theorem of Division of
Polynomials" [1]. Mathematical Medley 30 (1): 30–37.
• Li Zhou (2009). "Short Division of Polynomials". College Mathematics Journal 40 (1): 44–46.

References
[1] http:/ / math. nie. edu. sg/ lhfan/ Publication%20in%20PDF%20files/ Polynomial%20division%20_Math%20Medley%2020Mar2004_. pdf
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Article Sources and Contributors

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