Which expression represents the polynomial 2−6x3+5x5−x2 rewritten in descending order, using coefficients of 0 for any missing terms? 5x5−6x3+x2+0x+2 5x5+0x4−6x3+x2+0x−2 5x5+6x3−x2−2 5x5+0x4−6x3−x2+0x+2 −5x5−6x3+x2+0x+2 −5x5+6x3−x2+2

Explanation:

This is the expression of the original polynomial, showing the exponents of the variables properly:

Writing a polynomial in descending order means to arrange the terms such that the first term has the variable with the highest exponent, the second term contains the variable raised to a lesser exponent, and so on until the final term which is the constant term.

Mathematically that is:

Hence, the terms of the polynomial in descending order are:

There you see that the terms with x⁴ and x are missing. So, you can include those terms using 0 as coefficient:

And that is the answer.