In this study, we investigate the buckling of a column made of functionally graded materials in axial direction. The column is simply supported at both ends. The mode shape is represented by a polynomial whose power is increased from four to nine; this power only restricted by the possibility of the hand- or symbolic-manipulation. It is shown that the solutions stemming from lower-order polynomial are all contained in the solution associated with higher-order polynomials. Numerous novel solutions are uncovered that could be used as benchmark solutions versus numerous approximate techniques available for eigenvalue problems.