A transformation of a polynomial equation which is of the form
where
and
are polynomials and
does not vanish at a root of
. The cubic equation
is a special case of such a transformation. Tschirnhaus (1683) showed that a polynomial
of degree
can be reduced to a form in which the
and
terms have 0 coefficients.
In 1786, E. S. Bring showed that a general quintic
equation can be reduced to the form
In 1834, G. B. Jerrard showed that a Tschirnhaus transformation can be used to eliminate the ,
, and
terms for a general polynomial
equation of degree
.