Saturday, April 11, 2009

The Quadratic Formula

The quadratic formula can help you solve any quadratic equation of the form

ax2 + bx + c

To find the solutions to this equation we can use the quadratic formula which is written as follows

(-b (+or-) sqrt(b2-4ac)) / 2a

Let us consider an example of

x2 + 6x + 7

a=1
b=6
c=7

so

(-6 (+or-) sqrt(62-4*1*7)) / 2*1

=

-6 (+or-) sqrt(36 - 28) / 2

=

-6 (+or-) sqrt(8) / 2

We can simplify the square root so we get

(-6 (+or-) 2sqrt(2)) / 2

=

-3 +or- sqrt(2)

and that is our final answer.

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