how to solve quadritic formala

Question

x^2+8x+14=0

Answer 1

To solve something with the quadratic formula, you first have to get it into the form ax^2+bx+c=0 where a,b,c are the constants in front of your variables. You've already done that, so now we can look at what the values are for each of those constants. For this problem, a=1, b=8, c=14.

 

It's important to include minus signs if there are any. For example, if the equation was x^2-8x+14, a=1,b=-1,c=14. But this equation only has positives so we don't have to worry about that. Now that we know what the constants are, we can use the quadratic formula. When I type out the formula, I will use sqrt to mean "the square root of..."

 

The quadratic formula is: x=(-b+sqrt(b^2-4*a*c))/(2*a). That + means that you will get 2 answers, one where you add and another where you subtract. Now all you have to do is plug those constants from before (a=1, b=8, c=14) and get your 2 values for x. When I did it, I got x=(-8+sqrt(8^2-4*1*14))/(2*1) and x=(-8-sqrt(8^2-4*1*14))/(2*1). So I got x=-2.586 and x=-5.414.