Learning Resources

Investigation 5: Developing and Analyzing the Quadratic Formula

Example

Solve the following quadratic equation:

Solution

To use the quadratic formula we note that ; substitute these values into the formula:

You will note that the square root of a negative number occurs in this solution which means that the roots are complex since is an imaginary number. Recall that it simplifies as follows:

Therefore, the solution to this equation will be

The solution to the equation is .