5/26/2017 AlgebraQuadraticEquations:ASummary

SolvingQuadraticEquations:ASummary
Intheprevioustwosectionswevetalkedquiteabitaboutsolvingquadraticequations.Alogicalquestionto
askatthispointiswhichmethodshouldweusetosolveagivenquadraticequation?Unfortunately,the
answeris,itdepends.

Ifyourinstructorhasspecifiedthemethodtousethenthat,ofcourse,isthemethodyoushoulduse.
However,ifyourinstructorhadNOTspecifiedthemethodtousethenwewillhavetomakethedecision
ourselves.Hereisageneralsetofguidelinesthatmaybehelpfulindeterminingwhichmethodtouse.

1.Isitclearlyasquarerootpropertyproblem?Inotherwords,doestheequationconsistONLYof
somethingsquaredandaconstant.Ifthisistruethenthesquarerootpropertyisprobablytheeasiest
methodforuse.
2.Doesitfactor?Ifso,thatisprobablythewaytogo.Notethatyoushouldntspendalotoftimetrying
todetermineifthequadraticequationfactors.Lookattheequationandifyoucanquicklydetermine
thatitfactorsthengowiththat.Ifyoucantquicklydeterminethatitfactorsthendontworryaboutit.
3.Ifyouvereachedthispointthenyouvedeterminedthattheequationisnotinthecorrectformforthe
squarerootpropertyandthatitdoesntfactor(orthatyoucantquicklyseethatitfactors).So,atthis
pointyoureonlyrealoptionisthequadraticformula.

Onceyouvesolveenoughquadraticequationstheabovesetofguidelineswillbecomealmostsecondnature
toyouandyouwillfindyourselfgoingthroughthemalmostwithoutthinking.

Noticeaswellthatnowhereinthesetofguidelineswascompletingthesquarementioned.Thereasonfor
thisissimplythatitsalongmethodthatispronetomistakeswhenyougetinahurry.Thequadratic
formulawillalsoalwaysworkandismuchshorterofamethodtouse.Ingeneral,youshouldonlyuse
completingthesquareifyourinstructorhasrequiredyoutouseit.

Asasolvingtechniquecompletingthesquareshouldalwaysbeyourlastchoice.Thisdoesntmeanhowever
thatitisntanimportantmethod.Wewillseethecompletingthesquareprocessariseinseveralsectionsin
laterchapters.Interestinglyenoughwhenwedoseethisprocessinlatersectionswewontbesolving
equations!Thisprocessisveryusefulinmanysituationsofwhichsolvingisonlyone.

Beforeleavingthissectionwehaveonemoretopictodiscuss.Inthepreviouscoupleofsectionswesaw
thatsolvingaquadraticequationinstandardform,

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