5/26/2017 AlgebraQuadraticEquationsPartII

QuadraticEquations PartII
Thetopicofsolvingquadraticequationshasbeenbrokenintotwosectionsforthebenefitofthoseviewing
thisontheweb.Asasinglesectiontheloadtimeforthepagewouldhavebeenquitelong.Thisisthe
secondsectiononsolvingquadraticequations.

Intheprevioussectionwelookedatusingfactoringandthesquarerootpropertytosolvequadratic
equations.Theproblemisthatbothofthesesolutionmethodswillnotalwayswork.Noteveryquadraticis
factorableandnoteveryquadraticisintheformrequiredforthesquarerootproperty.

Itisnowtimetostartlookingintomethodsthatwillworkforallquadraticequations.So,inthissectionwe
willlookatcompletingthesquareandthequadraticformulaforsolvingthequadraticequation,

CompletingtheSquare
Thefirstmethodwelllookatinthissectioniscompletingthesquare.Itiscalledthisbecauseitusesa
processcalledcompletingthesquareinthesolutionprocess.So,weshouldfirstdefinejustwhatcompleting
thesquareis.

Letsstartwith

andnoticethatthex2hasacoefficientofone.Thatisrequiredinordertodothis.Now,tothisletsadd

.Doingthisgivesthefollowingfactorablequadraticequation.

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