#help with this question

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

mellow bone
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can someone explain all the steps from the quadratic to the answer please

supple wedgeBOT
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tropic hazel
mellow bone
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i just dont know where the halves n stuff came from

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like from the quadratic

tropic hazel
mellow bone
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thats the part im not understanding
shouldnt it be 4(x + 4)^2 - 20

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i dont know where i went wrong

tropic hazel
mellow bone
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could u walk me through the completing the square process please

tropic hazel
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Well, first we look at the quadratic and linear term: 4x^2 + 4x. What does the constant need to be for this to be a perfect square?

mellow bone
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4? im not sure what that means...

tropic hazel
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No, not 4.
Remember the usual formula: (a + b)^2 = a^2 + 2ab + b^2.

mellow bone
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whoa this is new i never learnt that

tropic hazel
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You've never learned the square of sum formula?

mellow bone
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no i have this different one i think

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it is a(x + b)^2 - (1/2b)^2 - c

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if that makes sense

neon ravine
tropic hazel
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We have:
4x^2 + 4x = (2x)^2 + 2(2x)(1)

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So, the constant that makes this a perfect square is 1.

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Thus, we get:
4x^2 + 4x = (4x^2 + 4x + 1) - 1
Now, apply the square of sum formula.

mellow bone
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ahh this is confusing me, is this what im supposed to know at gcse level?

tropic hazel
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What's gcse?

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In any case, the square of sum formula should be something you've learned a while ago, since you're solving quadratic equations.

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I mean, you use it to derive the quadratic formula.

mellow bone
tropic hazel
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Well, yeah, the video talks about how to solve quadratic equations by completing the square.

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Which is what we are doing.

mellow bone
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is it not a different method?

tropic hazel
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Different from what?

mellow bone
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your method

tropic hazel
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There are three main methods of solving quadratic equations:

  1. Quadratic formula.
  2. Vieta's formulas.
  3. Completing the square.
mellow bone
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and you were also teaching me completing the square?

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how come the video teaches different to what u were saying

tropic hazel
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I mean, it's barely different. It doesn't matter.

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The approach is to identify what constant term we get based on the quadratic and linear terms.

mellow bone
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holdon i think i found where i went wrong

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would 4(x + 1/2)^2 - 4/2

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be correct

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idk how to expand that

tropic hazel
mellow bone
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x = -1/2 +- (root)1/2

tropic hazel
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Great! Those are the solutions.

mellow bone
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i understand now thanks