Regarding <img src="http://pic.blog.plover.com/tex/funny-polynomial.gif">, 
I asserted that for <i>x</i>=1,2,3,4, it yields values 2, 4,6, 8, but
for <i>x</i>=5, it yields 37.  A hapless reader wrote in:<p>

<blockquote>
So, I am learning python, and wanted to verify your trivium. But my answer do not correspond to your assertion about the polynomial at x &gt; 1. I am obviously doing something wrong here, and this is also a note to myself to try and find at home what that is?

<pre>
&gt;&gt;&gt; def poly (x):
...   return 9 / 8 * x * x * x * x - 45 / 4 * x * x * x + 315 / 8 * x * x - 217 / 4 * x + 27
...
&gt;&gt;&gt; for x in range(10):
...   print x, poly(x)
...
0 27
1 2
2 3
3 0
4 -13
5 -18
6 27
7 188
8 555
9 1242

</blockquote>
<p>

Your job: what is the problem here?
<p>