All High School Math Resources
Example Questions
Example Question #1 : Completing The Square
Find the vertex of the parabola by completing the square.
To find the vertex of a parabola, we must put the equation into the vertex form:
The vertex can then be found with the coordinates (h, k).
To put the parabola's equation into vertex form, you have to complete the square. Completing the square just means adding the same number to both sides of the equation -- which, remember, doesn't change the value of the equation -- in order to create a perfect square.
Start with the original equation:
Put all of the terms on one side:
Now we know that we have to add something to both sides in order to create a perfect square:
In this case, we need to add 4 on both sides so that the right-hand side of the equation factors neatly.
Now we factor:
Once we isolate , we have the equation in vertex form:
Thus, the parabola's vertex can be found at .
Example Question #2 : Completing The Square
Complete the square:
Begin by dividing the equation by and subtracting from each side:
Square the value in front of the and add to each side:
Factor the left side of the equation:
Take the square root of both sides and simplify:
Example Question #3 : Completing The Square
Use factoring to solve the quadratic equation:
Factor and solve:
Factor like terms:
Combine like terms:
Example Question #4 : Completing The Square
Complete the square:
Begin by dividing the equation by and adding to each side:
Square the value in front of the and add to each side:
Factor the left side of the equation:
Take the square root of both sides and simplify:
Example Question #5 : Completing The Square
Complete the square:
Begin by dividing the equation by and subtracting from each side:
Square the value in front of the and add to each side:
Factor the left side of the equation:
Take the square root of both sides and simplify:
Example Question #341 : Algebra Ii
Solve using the quadratic formula:
Use the quadratic formula to solve:
Example Question #91 : Intermediate Single Variable Algebra
Solve using the quadratic formula:
Use the quadratic formula to solve:
Example Question #92 : Intermediate Single Variable Algebra
Solve using the quadratic formula:
Use the quadratic formula to solve:
Example Question #93 : Intermediate Single Variable Algebra
Solve using the quadratric formula:
Use the quadratic formula to solve:
Example Question #94 : Intermediate Single Variable Algebra
A baseball that is thrown in the air follows a trajectory of , where is the height of the ball in feet and is the time elapsed in seconds. How long does the ball stay in the air before it hits the ground?
Between 2.5 and 3 seconds
Between 2 and 2.5 seconds
Between 3.5 and 4 seconds
Between 3 and 3.5 seconds
Between 4 and 4.5 seconds
Between 3 and 3.5 seconds
To solve this, we look at the equation .
Setting the equation equal to 0 we get .
Once in this form, we can use the Quadratic Formula to solve for .
The quadratic formula says that if , then
.
Plugging in our values:
Therefore or and since we are looking only for positive values (because we can't have negative time), 3.4375 seconds is our answer.