Quadratic Equations
Recall a linear equation is one that looks like ax + b = cx + d, and our strategy was to get all x terms on the left, all constants on the right, then divide by the coefficient of x to solve.
A quadratic equation has an x2 (x-squared) term; "quadrat" is Latin for square.
The general quadratic equation looks like
ax2 + bx + c = 0 , . . . . where a ≠ 0.
If we want to find the x or x's that work, we might guess and substitute and hope we get lucky, or we might try one of these four methods:
We can solve graphically by equating the polynomial to y instead of to 0, we get an equation whose graph is a parabola. The x-intercepts of the parabola (if any) correspond to the solutions of the original quadratic equation.
