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. In particular, it is a second-degree polynomial equation, since the greatest power is two.
It may be possible to express a quadratic equation ax2 + bx + c = 0 as a product (px + q)(rx + s) = 0. In some cases, it is possible, by simple inspection, to determine values of p, q, r, and s that make the two forms equivalent to one another. If the quadratic equation is written in the second form, then the "Zero Factor Property" states that the quadratic equation is satisfied if px + q = 0 or rx + s = 0. Solving these two linear equations provides the roots of the quadratic.
Completing the square can be used to derive a general formula for solving quadratic equations, called the quadratic formula.[9] The mathematical proof will now be briefly summarized.[10] It can easily be seen, by polynomial expansion, that the following equation is equivalent to the quadratic equation:
One property of this form is that it yields one valid root when a = 0, while the other root contains division by zero, because when a = 0, the quadratic equation becomes a linear equation, which has one root. By contrast, in this case, the more common formula has a division by zero for one root and an indeterminate form 0/0 for the other root. On the other hand, when c = 0, the more common formula yields two correct roots whereas this form yields the zero root and an indeterminate form 0/0.
It is sometimes convenient to reduce a quadratic equation so that its leading coefficient is one. This is done by dividing both sides by a, which is always possible since a is non-zero. This produces the reduced quadratic equation:[12]
In the quadratic formula, the expression underneath the square root sign is called the discriminant of the quadratic equation, and is often represented using an upper case D or an upper case Greek delta:[13]
A quadratic equation with real coefficients can have either one or two distinct real roots, or two distinct complex roots. In this case the discriminant determines the number and nature of the roots. There are three cases:
The solutions of the quadratic equation ax2 + bx + c = 0 correspond to the roots of the function f(x) = ax2 + bx + c, since they are the values of x for which f(x) = 0. As shown in Figure 2, if a, b, and c are real numbers and the domain of f is the set of real numbers, then the roots of f are exactly the x-coordinates of the points where the graph touches the x-axis. As shown in Figure 3, if the discriminant is positive, the graph touches the x-axis at two points; if zero, the graph touches at one point; and if negative, the graph does not touch the x-axis.
Although the quadratic formula provides an exact solution, the result is not exact if real numbers are approximated during the computation, as usual in numerical analysis, where real numbers are approximated by floating point numbers (called "reals" in many programming languages). In this context, the quadratic formula is not completely stable.
The equation given by Fuss' theorem, giving the relation among the radius of a bicentric quadrilateral's inscribed circle, the radius of its circumscribed circle, and the distance between the centers of those circles, can be expressed as a quadratic equation for which the distance between the two circles' centers in terms of their radii is one of the solutions. The other solution of the same equation in terms of the relevant radii gives the distance between the circumscribed circle's center and the center of the excircle of an ex-tangential quadrilateral.
Babylonian mathematicians, as early as 2000 BC (displayed on Old Babylonian clay tablets) could solve problems relating the areas and sides of rectangles. There is evidence dating this algorithm as far back as the Third Dynasty of Ur.[19] In modern notation, the problems typically involved solving a pair of simultaneous equations of the form:
Geometric methods were used to solve quadratic equations in Babylonia, Egypt, Greece, China, and India. The Egyptian Berlin Papyrus, dating back to the Middle Kingdom (2050 BC to 1650 BC), contains the solution to a two-term quadratic equation.[21] Babylonian mathematicians from circa 400 BC and Chinese mathematicians from circa 200 BC used geometric methods of dissection to solve quadratic equations with positive roots.[22][23] Rules for quadratic equations were given in The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art, a Chinese treatise on mathematics.[23][24] These early geometric methods do not appear to have had a general formula. Euclid, the Greek mathematician, produced a more abstract geometrical method around 300 BC. With a purely geometric approach Pythagoras and Euclid created a general procedure to find solutions of the quadratic equation. In his work Arithmetica, the Greek mathematician Diophantus solved the quadratic equation, but giving only one root, even when both roots were positive.[25]
The first Vieta's formula is useful for graphing a quadratic function. Since the graph is symmetric with respect to a vertical line through the vertex, the vertex's x-coordinate is located at the average of the roots (or intercepts). Thus the x-coordinate of the vertex is
These formulas are much easier to evaluate than the quadratic formula under the condition of one large and one small root, because the quadratic formula evaluates the small root as the difference of two very nearly equal numbers (the case of large b), which causes round-off error in a numerical evaluation. The figure shows the difference between[clarification needed] (i) a direct evaluation using the quadratic formula (accurate when the roots are near each other in value) and (ii) an evaluation based upon the above approximation of Vieta's formulas (accurate when the roots are widely spaced). As the linear coefficient b increases, initially the quadratic formula is accurate, and the approximate formula improves in accuracy, leading to a smaller difference between the methods as b increases. However, at some point the quadratic formula begins to lose accuracy because of round off error, while the approximate method continues to improve. Consequently, the difference between the methods begins to increase as the quadratic formula becomes worse and worse.
It is within this context that we may understand the development of means of solving quadratic equations by the aid of trigonometric substitution. Consider the following alternate form of the quadratic equation,
where the subscripts n and p correspond, respectively, to the use of a negative or positive sign in equation [1]. Substituting the two values of θn or θp found from equations [4] or [5] into [2] gives the required roots of [1]. Complex roots occur in the solution based on equation [5] if the absolute value of sin 2θp exceeds unity. The amount of effort involved in solving quadratic equations using this mixed trigonometric and logarithmic table look-up strategy was two-thirds the effort using logarithmic tables alone.[35] Calculating complex roots would require using a different trigonometric form.[36]
The Carlyle circle, named after Thomas Carlyle, has the property that the solutions of the quadratic equation are the horizontal coordinates of the intersections of the circle with the horizontal axis.[39] Carlyle circles have been used to develop ruler-and-compass constructions of regular polygons.
For example, let a denote a multiplicative generator of the group of units of F4, the Galois field of order four (thus a and a + 1 are roots of x2 + x + 1 over F4. Because (a + 1)2 = a, a + 1 is the unique solution of the quadratic equation x2 + a = 0. On the other hand, the polynomial x2 + ax + 1 is irreducible over F4, but it splits over F16, where it has the two roots ab and ab + a, where b is a root of x2 + x + a in F16.
Quadratic equations have maximum of two solutions, which can be real or complex numbers. These two solutions (values of x) are also called the roots of the quadratic equations and are designated as (α, β). We shall learn more about the roots of a quadratic equation in the below content.
The roots of a quadratic equation are the two values of x, which are obtained by solving the quadratic equation. These roots of the quadratic equation are also called the zeros of the equation. For example, the roots of the equation x2 - 3x - 4 = 0 are x = -1 and x = 4 because each of them satisfies the equation. i.e.,
Quadratic formula is the simplest way to find the roots of a quadratic equation. There are certain quadratic equations that cannot be easily factorized, and here we can conveniently use this quadratic formula to find the roots in the quickest possible way. The two roots in the quadratic formula are presented as a single expression. The positive sign and the negative sign can be alternatively used to obtain the two distinct roots of the equation.
The roots of a quadratic equation are usually represented to by the symbols alpha (α), and beta (β). Here we shall learn more about how to find the nature of roots of a quadratic equation without actually finding the roots of the equation.
The nature of roots of a quadratic equation can be found without actually finding the roots (α, β) of the equation. This is possible by taking the discriminant value, which is part of the formula to solve the quadratic equation. The value b2 - 4ac is called the discriminant of a quadratic equation and is designated as 'D'. Based on the discriminant value the nature of the roots of the quadratic equation can be predicted.
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