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Animation depicting the process of completing the square. (Details, animated GIF version)In elementary algebra, completing the square is a technique for converting a quadratic polynomial of the form + + to the form + for some values of and . [1]
The roots of the quadratic function y = 1 / 2 x 2 − 3x + 5 / 2 are the places where the graph intersects the x-axis, the values x = 1 and x = 5.They can be found via the quadratic formula.
The process of simplifying expressions involving the square root of an expression involving the square root of another expression involves finding the two solutions of a quadratic equation. Descartes' theorem states that for every four kissing (mutually tangent) circles, their radii satisfy a particular quadratic equation.
A solution in radicals or algebraic solution is an expression of a solution of a polynomial equation that is algebraic, that is, relies only on addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, raising to integer powers, and extraction of n th roots (square roots, cube roots, etc.). A well-known example is the quadratic formula
The quadratic equation on a number can be solved using the well-known quadratic formula, which can be derived by completing the square. That formula always gives the roots of the quadratic equation, but the solutions are expressed in a form that often involves a quadratic irrational number, which is an algebraic fraction that can be evaluated ...
In the case of two nested square roots, the following theorem completely solves the problem of denesting. [2]If a and c are rational numbers and c is not the square of a rational number, there are two rational numbers x and y such that + = if and only if is the square of a rational number d.
Let = + + +be a polynomial, and , …, be its complex roots (not necessarily distinct). For any constant c, the polynomial whose roots are +, …, + is = = + + +.If the coefficients of P are integers and the constant = is a rational number, the coefficients of Q may be not integers, but the polynomial c n Q has integer coefficients and has the same roots as Q.
The square root of 2 was the first such number to be proved irrational. Theodorus of Cyrene proved the irrationality of the square roots of non-square natural numbers up to 17, but stopped there, probably because the algebra he used could not be applied to the square root of numbers greater than 17. Euclid's Elements Book 10 is dedicated to ...