I was practicing factoring polynomials and reviewing my algebra and was wondering, what is the most decomposed term in a mathematical expression? In the expression $x^2 + x + 4$ could you say that the term $x^2$ is composed of two terms and one operator? Can you say that $x$ and $2$ are terms in $x^2$ and that exponentiation is the operator of the expression? Is there a limit to the ability to decompose expressions? For example you could say $2$ is a composition of $1 + 1$ and $1$ is a composition of $1/2 + 1/2$ is there for example a prime-like decomposition of a term where a specific term Ex. $x^2$ can't be composed of anything smaller, or is it going to be infinite because you can always make a term out of two smaller term?
Thank you for taking the time to read my question.
The common vocabulary is that a "term" is separated from other terms by addition and subtraction, while a "factor" is separated by multiplication or division.
So in $x^2 + x + 4$ there are three terms, and none of the terms factor except that $x^2 = x\cdot x$.
In $20x^3$, there are many factors, but we most commonly would refer to $20$ as a factor and $x^3$ as either one or three factors depending on what we are doing.
Operators can get very basic, such as "squaring" or more generally "exponentiating". They are usually not things like numbers but rather things that are done to numbers.