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To do that, we must understand what is meant by the terms quadratic expression and quadratic equation. A quadratic expression is a polynomial of this form:
Examples of quadratic equations would be: 0 = 6x2 + 2x + 9 0 = 3.2x2 + 8.2x - 1.6 When equations of this form are solved for x, you get you get the quadratic formula, which is:
That is, you can use this calculation to find the values of x that make the quadratic equation equal to zero. These specific values of x are called the roots of the quadratic equation. They are also called the zeros of the equation. Let us figure out why x is equal to the above value. First, start with the quadratic formula:
[1]
Subtract c from both sides to get:
[2]
Divide both sides by a:
[3]
This next step may look a bit mysterious at first. It will allow us to turn the left side of the above equation into a perfect square. This method of turning one side of an equation into a perfect square is often called 'completing the square'.
Add
to both sides:
[4]
Factor the left side of this equation by asking this question: What two numbers when
added are
That number is
Therefore, we can see the left side of [4] as a perfect square that factors this way:
[5]
The left side can now be written this way:
[6]
Let us do a bit of algebra on the right side of [6]:
[7]
Now, we get a common denominator on the right side:
[8]
Adding on the right side:
[9]
Taking the square root of each side:
[10]
Subtract
[11]
Do some algebra on the right side:
[12]
Since the terms on the right side now have a common denominator, we will combine those terms by adding them:
[13]
And we are all done. [13] is the solution to the quadratic equation.