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By the fundamental theorem of algebra, if the monic polynomial equation x 2 + bx + c = 0 has complex coefficients, it must have two (not necessarily distinct) complex roots. Unfortunately, the discriminant b 2 − 4c is not as useful in this situation, because it may be a complex number. Still, a modified version of the general theorem can be ...
The roots of the quadratic function y = 1 / 2 x 2 − 3x + 5 / 2 are the places where the graph intersects the x-axis, the values x = 1 and x = 5. They can be found via the quadratic formula. In elementary algebra, the quadratic formula is a closed-form expression describing the solutions of a quadratic equation.
[8] [9] In programming languages such as Ada, [10] Fortran, [11] Perl, [12] Python [13] and Ruby, [14] a double asterisk is used, so x 2 is written as x ** 2. The plus–minus sign , ±, is used as a shorthand notation for two expressions written as one, representing one expression with a plus sign, the other with a minus sign.
The formula for the difference of two squares can be used for factoring polynomials that contain the square of a first quantity minus the square of a second quantity. For example, the polynomial x 4 − 1 {\displaystyle x^{4}-1} can be factored as follows:
One of the basic principles of algebra is that one can multiply both sides of an equation by the same expression without changing the equation's solutions. However, strictly speaking, this is not true, in that multiplication by certain expressions may introduce new solutions that were not present before. For example, consider the following ...
Since taking the square root is the same as raising to the power 1 / 2 , the following is also an algebraic expression: 1 − x 2 1 + x 2 {\displaystyle {\sqrt {\frac {1-x^{2}}{1+x^{2}}}}} An algebraic equation is an equation involving polynomials , for which algebraic expressions may be solutions .
Thus, when one separates variables for first-order equations, one in fact moves the dx denominator of the operator to the side with the x variable, and the d(y) is left on the side with the y variable. The second-derivative operator, by analogy, breaks down as follows:
[17] [18] For example, the fraction 1/(x 2 + 1) is not a polynomial, and it cannot be written as a finite sum of powers of the variable x. For polynomials in one variable, there is a notion of Euclidean division of polynomials, generalizing the Euclidean division of integers.