Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Solutions to problems that can be expressed in terms of quadratic equations were known as early as 2000 BC. [4] [5] Because the quadratic equation involves only one unknown, it is called "univariate". The quadratic equation contains only powers of x that are non-negative integers, and therefore it is a polynomial equation.
The quadratic formula can equivalently be written using various alternative expressions, for instance = (), which can be derived by first dividing a quadratic equation by , resulting in + + = , then substituting the new coefficients into the standard quadratic formula.
If a quadratic function is equated with zero, then the result is a quadratic equation. The solutions of a quadratic equation are the zeros (or roots) of the corresponding quadratic function, of which there can be two, one, or zero. The solutions are described by the quadratic formula. A quadratic polynomial or quadratic function can involve ...
The quadratic formula =. is a closed form of the solutions to the general quadratic equation + + =. More generally, in the context of polynomial equations, a closed form of a solution is a solution in radicals; that is, a closed-form expression for which the allowed functions are only n th-roots and field operations (+,,, /).
All quadratic equations have exactly two solutions in complex numbers (but they may be equal to each other), a category that includes real numbers, imaginary numbers, and sums of real and imaginary numbers. Complex numbers first arise in the teaching of quadratic equations and the quadratic formula. For example, the quadratic equation
Because of this, often, the only simple effective way to deal with multiplication by expressions involving variables is to substitute each of the solutions obtained into the original equation and confirm that this yields a valid equation. After discarding solutions that yield an invalid equation, we will have the correct set of solutions.
For quadratic equations, the quadratic formula provides such expressions of the solutions. Since the 16th century, similar formulas (using cube roots in addition to square roots), although much more complicated, are known for equations of degree three and four (see cubic equation and quartic equation ).
That is, h is the x-coordinate of the axis of symmetry (i.e. the axis of symmetry has equation x = h), and k is the minimum value (or maximum value, if a < 0) of the quadratic function. One way to see this is to note that the graph of the function f ( x ) = x 2 is a parabola whose vertex is at the origin (0, 0).