Quadratic formula
Formula that provides the solutions to a quadratic equation / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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In elementary algebra, the quadratic formula is a closed-form expression describing the solutions of a quadratic equation. Other ways of solving quadratic equations, such as completing the square, yield the same solutions.
Given a general quadratic equation of the form , with representing an unknown, and coefficients , , and representing known real or complex numbers with , the values of satisfying the equation, called the roots or zeros, can be found using the quadratic formula,
where the plus–minus symbol "" indicates that the equation has two roots.[1] Written separately, these are:
The quantity is known as the discriminant of the quadratic equation.[2] If the coefficients , , and are real numbers then when , the equation has two distinct real roots; when , the equation has one repeated real root; and when , the equation has no real roots but has two distinct complex roots, which are complex conjugates of each other.
Geometrically, the roots represent the values at which the graph of the quadratic function , a parabola, crosses the -axis: the graph's -intercepts.[3] The quadratic formula can also be used to identify the parabola's axis of symmetry.[4]