Completing The Square - Solving Quadratic Equations

Solving Quadratic Equations

Completing the square may be used to solve any quadratic equation. For example:

The first step is to complete the square:

Next we solve for the squared term:

Then either

and therefore

This can be applied to any quadratic equation. When the x2 has a coefficient other than 1, the first step is to divide out the equation by this coefficient: for an example see the non-monic case below.

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