[Math] Solving a quadratic equation without using the formula

linear algebraquadratics

I was working on some quadratic equations and wondered if I could try and solve an equation without using the formula. Could you tell me if my method is correct? I tried solving it this way to improve my command over the mathematical language and to see if I've understood the concept correctly. What I did was take an equation who's x^2 coefficient was > 1 and convert it into the vertex form to further solve it.

The way I went about it was:

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Best Answer

Using this approach you can derive a formula for solving quadratic equations. Let $a x^2 + b x - c$ be a polynomial with ($a \neq 0$), then:

$$a x^2 + b x = -c \iff a(x^2 + \frac{b}{a}x) = c$$ $$\iff a(x+\frac{b}{a}x +\frac{b}{2a}) = c + \frac{b}{2a}$$ $$\iff a(x+\frac{b}{2a})^2 = c + \frac{b}{2a}$$ $$\iff \pm\sqrt{a}(x+\frac{b}{2a}) = \sqrt{c+\frac{b}{2a}}$$ $$\iff x = \frac{\pm\sqrt{c+\frac{b}{2a}}}{\sqrt{a}} - \frac{b}{2a} $$

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