Written Assignment

Week 3 Written Assignment

Gladys McCray

Math- 126

October 8, 2012

Chander Sekar

Week 3 Written Assignment

Project 1 and 2

I have learned that there are many steps to solving quadratic equations. There are three different ways to do the quadratic equations, (1) factoring, (2) standard, and (3) completing the square. The standard form of quadratic equations ax² + bx + c = 0 is most commonly used when solving quadratic equations. These equations are called second degree because the largest exponent is two. I have also learned about a formula that always results in a prime number. Prime numbers are numbers that are divisible by one and themselves. For project 1, my goal is to solve a quadratic equation using the Indian method and for project 2, my goal is to come up with an instance in which the formula results in a composite number by selecting two even numbers, two odd numbers, and using the number zero.

Project 1

To begin my first project I created my quadratic equation, x²+10x+ (-9) =0. My next goal was to solve the equation for x using an Indian method. First I added the constant value to both sides and got x²+ (-4x) =8. I then multiplied the equation by four which gave me the answer 4x²+ (-16x) =32. I had to add the original coefficient after that step, which brought me to the total, 4x²+10x + 16 = 48. My next step allowed me to format my equation so that I could eventually isolate the x. So I had to square root both sides of the equation. When dealing with the square roots you can have a negative and positive answer. So when I square rooted the answer I got these answers 2x+4=7, 2x+4= -7. Next to isolate the x on one side of the first equation (2x+4=7), I added -4 to both sides that gave me the answer 2x=3. I divided that by two to get the answer x=3/2. For the second equation (2x+4= -7) I added -4 to both sides and got x= -11/2. Now to check if my answer is right I would plug x into the equation. So 2(3/2) +4=7, would give me...