How to Divide Polynomials Using Long Division?

The following are the steps for the long division of polynomials:

• Step 1. Sort the terms in decreasing order of their indices (if needed). Write the missing terms with a coefficient of zero.
• Step 2. For the first term of the quotient, divide the first term of the dividend by the first term of the divisor.
• Step 3. Multiply this quotient statement by the divisor to get the product.
• Step 4. Subtract this product from the dividend and drop the next term (if any). The difference and the brought-down term will form the new dividend.
• Step 5. Follow this process until you get a remainder, which can be zero or an index less than the divisor.