GCSE Completing The Square

Dr J Frost (jfrost@tiffin.kingston.sch.uk)
www.drfrostmaths.com
@DrFrostMaths

Last modified: 5th March 2018

Starter
 Expandthe following brackets.
Do you notice any relationship between the original expression
and coefficient of in the expanded expression in each case?

Key
 is theTerm: The coefficient of a term

2 2
  number on front of it. So the
?

( 𝑥+1 ) =𝑥 +𝟐 𝑥+1
coefficient of is 3 and the
coefficient of is 5.

?
?
?

? the
 The coefficient of is double Relationship
number after the in the bracket.
Therefore…
 Therefore, it seems as if we can halve the coefficient of to get the
missing number in

 Put the following in the form

Consider
  the expansion of :
  𝑥2 +10 𝑥 → ( 𝑥+5 ?) − 25
2
We only want the “” so we ‘throw
away’ the 25 by subtracting it.
  𝑥2 +8 𝑥 → ( 𝑥+ 4 )?
2
− 16
Because
  the form required was “”, we
  𝑥2 +2 𝑥 → ( 𝑥+1?) 2 − 1 might expect to have to write our
answer as:
2
  1 1
2
𝑥 +𝑥→ 𝑥+ ? −
2 4 ( ) However, since this is effectively the
same as , this form is preferred; it is
cleaner!

  𝑥2 2
− 6 𝑥 → ( 𝑥 − 3? ) − 9 Because
  of the sign, you might be
tempted to think that the answer is .
 𝑥2 − 20 𝑥 → ( 𝑥 − 10 ) 2?− 100 But note that:

  𝑥2 − 12 𝑥 → ( 𝑥 − 6 ) 2 − 36
? We don’t want the +9, so we subtract
just as before.
Further Examples
 ! Putting a quadratic expression in the form is known as ‘completing the square’.

 
The key motivation is that while contains an term and a term, its ‘completed
square’ only contains a single . We will see later why this has a number of
useful applications.

 Put the following in the form

  2 2 The +3 is still there!

𝑥 +8 𝑥+3 → ( 𝑥+4 ) −16+3 ?

  2 2
𝑥 −2 𝑥+10 → ( 𝑥 −1 ) −1+10 ?
  2 2
𝑥 +12 𝑥 −1 → ( 𝑥 +6 )? −36 −1 2 2
  2 1 1 1 3
𝑥 − 𝑥 +1→ 𝑥 −
2 ( ) − +1=
4 ? 𝑥−
2 ( ) +
4
Test Your Understanding

 Put the following in the form

  𝑥2 +16 𝑥 → ( 𝑥 +8 ) ? − 16
2

  2 2
𝑥 +10 𝑥+31 → ( 𝑥+5 ) −?25+31
  2 2
𝑥 −6 𝑥 − 5 → ( 𝑥 − 3 ) −? 9 −5
Exercise 1
 Put the following in the form
 
1 a   ? 3 a ?
b ? b ?
c ?
c ?
d ?
e ? 𝒂 𝟐
𝒂𝟐
a  𝑥2 +𝑎 𝑥= 𝒙+
f ?
N ( 𝟐)? −
𝟒
2 2 𝟐
g ? b  𝑥 +2 𝑎𝑥 +𝑎 =( 𝒙+𝒂
? )
h ?
2 a ?

b ?
 
What if the coefficient of is not 1?
 Put in the form

Factorise
  the coefficient of out of the first two
  ?
2 terms (leave last term outside brackets)

2 ( 𝑥 +4 𝑥 ) +7 ?
?
?
Complete the square within brackets
(you should have a bracket within a bracket)

Expand outer bracket

Final simplification.

 Put in the form  Put in the form

 
2
 
2
3 ( 𝑥 −2 𝑥 ) +11 4 ( 𝑥 −2𝑥 ) +11
? ?
Harder Examples
 Put in the form

2
 

−1 𝑥 −12 𝑥+3?

 Put in the form

1 2
 

¿ ( 𝑥 +40𝑥 ) −3
?
10
Test Your Understanding
 Put in the form

 
2
¿5 ( 𝑥 +4 𝑥 ) +7
?

 Put in the form

1 2
 

¿ ( 𝑥 −12𝑥 ) +7 ?

4
Exercise 2
 Put the following in the form

?
2 𝟐
1 a  

3𝑥 +6𝑥−2=𝟑 ( 𝒙+𝟏 ) −𝟓
b ?
c ?
d ?
e ?
f ?

2 𝟐
2 a   ?

−𝑥 +8𝑥+6=−( 𝒙 −𝟒 ) +𝟐𝟐
b ?
c ?
d ?
e ?
f ?
3 a
 
1 2 𝟏? 𝟐
b
𝑥 +2 𝑥+1= (?𝒙+𝟑 ) −𝟐
c 3 𝟑?
Why complete the square?
There are 3 major applications of completing the square, two of which we will look at:

 “(a) Write in the form .

1 :: Solving Equations (b) Hence determine the exact solutions of:

Solving quadratic equations in this way also allows us to derive

the quadratic formula! (The proof is later in these slides)

 “Determine the turning point of the line with equation ”

2 :: Finding the Turning
Point of a Parabola Key Term: A parabola is the name of a line
which has a quadratic equation.

3 :: (Further Maths A Level)  “Determine ”

Integrating reciprocals of
quadratics  means “integrate”. This allows us to find
the area under a graph. You won’t need to
worry about this for some time!
Application #1 :: Solving by Completing the Square
 a) Write in the form
b) Hence, determine the exact solutions of

a  
?
b Because
  now only appears once in the
? equation, we can use our ‘changing the
subject’ skills to make the subject.
?
? Don’t
  forget the . Suppose for example we were solving .
because and

We
  tend to write rather than to avoid ambiguity of
what is included under the .
Further Examples
 a) Write in the form
b) Hence, determine the exact solutions of

2
 

( 𝑥−3 ) −9+3=0
?

 a) Write in the form

b) Hence, determine the exact solutions of

?
Test Your Understanding
 a) Write in the form
b) Hence, determine the exact solutions of

?2
 

( 𝑥+5 ) −29=0
 a) Write in the form
b) Hence, determine the exact solutions of

?
Application #2 :: Minimum/Maximum Values
Completing the square also allows us to find the minimum or maximum
value of a quadratic.

 For the quadratic expression ,

(a) Determine its minimum value.
(b) Determine the value of for which this minimum occurs.

2
( 𝑥 − 2 ) − 4+11
  First complete the square.
?
 Let’s experiment with different values of to see what gives us the smallest value:

?
?
So the minimum value of ?appears to be 7, which occurs when . But why is this?
? 0. So we choose such that the squared term is 0 in
Anything squared is at least
order to minimise it.
? ?

?
Further Examples
 For the quadratic expression ,
(a) Determine its minimum value.
(b) Determine the value of for which this minimum occurs.

 
!  The minimum value
We want the squared term to be 0. This occurs when .
of is , which occurs
Then the minimum value?will be
when .

 For the quadratic expression ,

(a) Determine its maximum value.
(b) Determine the value of for which this maximum occurs.

 
We are subtracting a number which is at least 0. Therefore to
maximise the result, we should subtract 0.
Max value: 19 ?
at which this occurs: 4
Turning Points of Quadratics

 A curve with equation has a turning point

at . Determine the coordinates of .

𝑃  At
  the turning point, the value of , i.e. , is minimised. We
know how to do this!

 
?

Quickfire Questions
Completed Square Turning Point
  ? ?
? ?
? ?
? ?
Test Your Understanding

𝟐
 
𝒚=?( 𝒙 +𝟓 ) − 𝟕

 
? when )
Minimum value: (which occurs
Exercise 3
1 Find
  the turning point of the curves 3 [Edexcel
  GCSE(9-1) Mock Set 1 Autumn 2016 -
with the following equations: 1H Q15]
Here is a sketch of a vertical cross section through the
a ? centre of a bowl.

b ?
?
c Find the minimum value of the
d following expressions: ?
e ?
f ?
g ? The cross section is the shaded region between the

h ? curve and the -axis.

The curve has equation   where   and are both
measured in centimetres.
2 Find the depth of the bowl.

a ? Minimum point is
b ?
c ? Therefore depth is 22.5 cm

d ? ?
e ?
Spot the Student Error
 “Complete the square using .”
Student Answer: “”
 
What’s wrong: The student factorised rather than completed the square.
• We factorise when we want to find the roots of a quadratic.
?
• Meanwhile, we complete the square when we want to find the
turning point of a quadratic.

2 2
 𝑥 − 6 𝑥 +11 → ( 𝑥 − 3 ) +9+11=…
What’s wrong: The
  9 should have been subtracted (and it should always be a
?
subtraction regardless of whether the coefficient of is positive or
negative.

 “Write ” in the form ”

Student Answer:  
2
¿ 2 ( 𝑥 +4 𝑥 ) +11
What’s wrong:  In the last line of working, they did
They forgot to multiply the by 2. ?
Proof of the Quadratic Formula
 By completing the square, show that the solution of is

2
 

𝑎𝑥 +𝑏𝑥+𝑐=0 ?