Quadratic Equations – Four ways to solve
This is a quadratic equation.
ax^2+bx+c=0
In our podcast we mentioned several ways of solving quadratic equations, including a “new” way based on the work of Po Shen Loh (who credits the work of Viète, the Babylonians and the Greeks). He posts updates to his method on his website if you want to read about it in his words.
When you graph a quadratic equation the curved shape you get is called a parabola. Typically when people “solve” a quadratic equation they are looking for the values that correspond to where the parabola crosses the x-axis.
In this activity, you can find four different methods for solving a quadratic equation. Some of them are easier to use than others and the last 3 methods will even allow you to solve quadratics that have complex (imaginary) numbers in their solution.
If you want to give all of the methods a try, download the file and have fun!