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Derivation by Not to be confused with quadratic function or quadratic equation. Small

completing the square
In elementary algebra, the quadratic formula Standard
Equivalent
formulations is a closed-form expression describing the
Large
solutions of a quadratic equation. Other ways of
Square root in the
solving quadratic equations, such as Width
denominator
completing the square, yield the same
Other derivations Standard
solutions.
Completing the Wide
square by Śrīdhara's Given a general quadratic equation of the form
method , with representing an Color (beta)
The roots of the quadratic
By substitution unknown, and coefficients , , and
1 2 5 Automatic
representing known real or complex numbers function y = 2 x − 3x + 2 are
By using algebraic
with , the values of satisfying the Light
identities the places where the graph
equation, called the roots or zeros, can be intersects the x-axis, the Dark
By Lagrange
found using the quadratic formula, values x = 1 and x = 5. They
resolvents
can be found via the quadratic
Numerical calculation formula.

Historical development

Geometric significance where the plus–minus symbol " " indicates that the equation has two roots.[1]
Dimensional analysis Written separately, these are:

See also

Notes

References
The quantity is known as the discriminant of the quadratic
equation.[2] If the coefficients , , and are real numbers then when , the
equation has two distinct real roots; when , the equation has one repeated
real root; and when , the equation has no real roots but has two distinct
complex roots, which are complex conjugates of each other.

Geometrically, the roots represent the values at which the graph of the quadratic
function , a parabola, crosses the -axis: the graph's -
intercepts.[3] The quadratic formula can also be used to identify the parabola's axis
of symmetry.[4]

Derivation by completing the square [ edit ]

The standard way to derive the

quadratic formula is to apply the
method of completing the square to the
generic quadratic equation
.[5][6][7][8] The idea
is to manipulate the equation into the
form for some
expressions and written in terms of To complete the square, form a
the coefficients; take the square root of squared binomial on the left-hand side
of a quadratic equation, from which the
both sides; and then isolate . solution can be found by taking the
square root of both sides.
We start by dividing the equation by
the quadratic coefficient , which is
allowed because is non-zero. Afterwards, we subtract the constant term to
isolate it on the right-hand side:

The left-hand side is now of the form , and we can "complete the square"
by adding a constant to obtain a squared binomial
. In this example we add to both sides so that the left-hand side
can be factored:

Because the left-hand side is now a perfect square, we can easily take the square
root of both sides:

Finally, subtracting from both sides to isolate produces the quadratic

formula:

Equivalent formulations [ edit ]

The quadratic formula can equivalently be written using various alternative

expressions, for instance

which can be derived by first dividing a quadratic equation by , resulting in

, then substituting the new coefficients into the standard
quadratic formula. Because this variant allows re-use of the intermediately
calculated quantity , it can slightly reduce the arithmetic involved.

Square root in the denominator [ edit ]

A lesser known quadratic formula, first mentioned by Giulio Fagnano,[9] describes

the same roots via an equation with the square root in the denominator (assuming
):

Here the minus–plus symbol " " indicates that the two roots of the quadratic
equation, in the same order as the standard quadratic formula, are

This variant has been jokingly called the "citardauq" formula ("quadratic" spelled
backwards).[10]

When has the opposite sign as either or ,

subtraction can cause catastrophic cancellation, resulting in poor accuracy in
numerical calculations; choosing between the version of the quadratic formula with
the square root in the numerator or denominator depending on the sign of can
avoid this problem. See § Numerical calculation below.

This version of the quadratic formula is used in Muller's method for finding the roots
of general functions. It can be derived from the standard formula from the identity
, one of Vieta's formulas. Alternately, it can be derived by dividing the
by to get , applying the standard
formula to find the two roots , and then taking the reciprocal to find the roots
of the original equation.

Other derivations [ edit ]

Any generic method or algorithm for solving quadratic equations can be applied to
an equation with symbolic coefficients and used to derive some closed-form
expression equivalent to the quadratic formula. Alternative methods are sometimes
simpler than completing the square, and may offer interesting insight into other
areas of mathematics.

Completing the square by Śrīdhara's method [ edit ]

Instead of dividing by to isolate , it can be slightly simpler to multiply by

instead to produce , which allows us to complete the square without need
for fractions. Then the steps of the derivation are:[11]

1. Multiply each side by .

2. Add to both sides to complete the square.
3. Take the square root of both sides.
4. Isolate .

Applying this method to a generic quadratic equation with symbolic coefficients

yields the quadratic formula:

This method for completing the square is ancient and was known to the 8th–9th
century Indian mathematician Śrīdhara.[12] Compared with the modern standard
method for completing the square, this alternate method avoids fractions until the
last step and hence does not require a rearrangement after step 3 to obtain a
common denominator in the right side.[11]

By substitution [ edit ]

Another derivation uses a change of variables to eliminate the linear term. Then the
equation takes the form in terms of a new variable and some constant
expression , whose roots are then .

By substituting into , expanding the products and

combining like terms, and then solving for , we have:

Finally, after taking a square root of both sides and substituting the resulting
expression for back into the familiar quadratic formula emerges:

By using algebraic identities [ edit ]

The following method was used by many historical mathematicians:[13]

Let the roots of the quadratic equation be and . The

derivation starts from an identity for the square of a difference (valid for any two
complex numbers), of which we can take the square root on both sides:

Since the coefficient , we can divide the quadratic equation by to obtain a

monic polynomial with the same roots. Namely,

This implies that the sum and the product . Thus the
identity can be rewritten:

Therefore,

The two possibilities for each of and are the same two roots in opposite order,
so we can combine them into the standard quadratic equation:

By Lagrange resolvents [ edit ]

Further information: Lagrange resolvents

An alternative way of deriving the quadratic formula is via the method of Lagrange
resolvents,[14] which is an early part of Galois theory.[15] This method can be
generalized to give the roots of cubic polynomials and quartic polynomials, and
leads to Galois theory, which allows one to understand the solution of algebraic
equations of any degree in terms of the symmetry group of their roots, the Galois
group.

This approach focuses on the roots themselves rather than algebraically

rearranging the original equation. Given a monic quadratic polynomial
assume that and are the two roots. So the polynomial factors as

which implies and .

Since multiplication and addition are both commutative, exchanging the roots
and will not change the coefficients and : one can say that and are
symmetric polynomials in and . Specifically, they are the elementary symmetric
polynomials – any symmetric polynomial in and can be expressed in terms of
and instead.

The Galois theory approach to analyzing and solving polynomials is to ask whether,
given coefficients of a polynomial each of which is a symmetric function in the
roots, one can "break" the symmetry and thereby recover the roots. Using this
approach, solving a polynomial of degree is related to the ways of rearranging
("permuting") terms, called the symmetric group on letters and denoted .
For the quadratic polynomial, the only ways to rearrange two roots are to either
leave them be or to transpose them, so solving a quadratic polynomial is simple.

To find the roots and , consider their sum and difference:

These are called the Lagrange resolvents of the polynomial, from which the roots
can be recovered as

Because is a symmetric function in and , it can be expressed in

terms of and specifically as described above. However,
is not symmetric, since exchanging and yields the additive inverse
. So cannot be expressed in terms of the symmetric polynomials.
However, its square is symmetric in the roots, expressible in terms
of and . Specifically , which
implies . Taking the positive root "breaks" the symmetry,
resulting in

from which the roots and are recovered as

which is the quadratic formula for a monic polynomial.

Substituting , yields the usual expression for an arbitrary

quadratic polynomial. The resolvents can be recognized as

respectively the vertex and the discriminant of the monic polynomial.

A similar but more complicated method works for cubic equations, which have three
resolvents and a quadratic equation (the "resolving polynomial") relating and ,
which one can solve by the quadratic equation, and similarly for a quartic equation
(degree 4), whose resolving polynomial is a cubic, which can in turn be solved.[14]
The same method for a quintic equation yields a polynomial of degree 24, which
does not simplify the problem, and, in fact, solutions to quintic equations in general
cannot be expressed using only roots.

Numerical calculation [ edit ]

The quadratic formula is exactly correct when performed using the idealized
arithmetic of real numbers, but when approximate arithmetic is used instead, for
example pen-and-paper arithmetic carried out to a fixed number of decimal places
or the floating-point binary arithmetic available on computers, the limitations of the
number representation can lead to substantially inaccurate results unless great
care is taken in the implementation. Specific difficulties include catastrophic
cancellation in computing the sum if ; catastrophic
calculation in computing the discriminant itself in cases where
; degeneration of the formula when , , or , is represented as zero or
infinite; and possible overflow or underflow when multiplying or dividing extremely
large or small numbers, even in cases where the roots can be accurately
represented.[16][17]

Catastrophic cancellation occurs when two numbers which are approximately equal
are subtracted. While each of the numbers may independently be representable to
a certain number of digits of precision, the identical leading digits of each number
cancel, resulting in a difference of lower relative precision. When ,
evaluation of causes catastrophic cancellation, as does the evaluation
of when . When using the standard quadratic formula,
calculating one of the two roots always involves addition, which preserves the
working precision of the intermediate calculations, while calculating the other root
involves subtraction, which compromises it. Therefore, naïvely following the
standard quadratic formula often yields one result with less relative precision than
expected. Unfortunately, introductory algebra textbooks typically do not address
this problem, even though it causes students to obtain inaccurate results in other
school subjects such as introductory chemistry.[18]

For example, if trying to solve the equation using a pocket

calculator, the result of the quadratic formula might be
approximately calculated as:[19]

Even though the calculator used ten decimal digits of precision for each step,
calculating the difference between two approximately equal numbers has yielded a
result for with only four correct digits.

One way to recover an accurate result is to use the identity . In this

example can be calculated as , which is
correct to the full ten digits. Another more or less equivalent approach is to use the
version of the quadratic formula with the square root in the denominator to calculate
one of the roots (see § Square root in the denominator above).

Practical computer implementations of the solution of quadratic equations

commonly choose which formula to use for each root depending on the sign of .
[20]

These methods do not prevent possible overflow or underflow of the floating-point

exponent in computing or , which can lead to numerically representable
roots not being computed accurately. A more robust but computationally expensive
strategy is to start with the substitution , turning the
quadratic equation into

where is the sign function. Letting , this equation has the

form , for which one solution is and the
other solution is . The roots of the original equation are then
and .[21][22]

With additional complication the expense and extra rounding of the square roots
can be avoided by approximating them as powers of two, while still avoiding
exponent overflow for representable roots.[17]

Historical development [ edit ]

The earliest methods for solving quadratic equations were geometric. Babylonian
cuneiform tablets contain problems reducible to solving quadratic equations.[23]
The Egyptian Berlin Papyrus, dating back to the Middle Kingdom (2050 BC to 1650
BC), contains the solution to a two-term quadratic equation.[24]

The Greek mathematician Euclid (circa 300 BC) used geometric methods to solve
quadratic equations in Book 2 of his Elements, an influential mathematical
treatise[25] Rules for quadratic equations appear in the Chinese The Nine Chapters
on the Mathematical Art circa 200 BC.[26][27] In his work Arithmetica, the Greek
mathematician Diophantus (circa 250 AD) solved quadratic equations with a
method more recognizably algebraic than the geometric algebra of Euclid.[25] His
solution gives only one root, even when both roots are positive.[28]

The Indian mathematician Brahmagupta included a generic method for finding one
root of a quadratic equation in his treatise Brāhmasphuṭasiddhānta (circa 628 AD),
written out in words in the style of the time but more or less equivalent to the
modern symbolic formula.[29][30] His solution of the quadratic equation
was as follows: "To the absolute number multiplied by four times the
[coefficient of the] square, add the square of the [coefficient of the] middle term; the
square root of the same, less the [coefficient of the] middle term, being divided by
twice the [coefficient of the] square is the value."[31] In modern notation, this can be
written . The Indian mathematician Śrīdhara (8th–
9th century) came up with a similar algorithm for solving quadratic equations in a
now-lost work on algebra quoted by Bhāskara II.[32] The modern quadratic formula
is sometimes called Sridharacharya's formula in India.[citation needed]

The 9th-century Persian mathematician Muḥammad ibn Mūsā al-Khwārizmī solved

quadratic equations algebraically.[33] The quadratic formula covering all cases was
first obtained by Simon Stevin in 1594.[34] In 1637 René Descartes published La
Géométrie containing special cases of the quadratic formula in the form we know
today.[35]

Geometric significance [ edit ]

In terms of coordinate geometry, an axis-aligned parabola is a curve whose -

coordinates are the graph of a second-degree polynomial, of the form
, where , , and are real-valued constant coefficients with
.

Geometrically, the quadratic formula defines the points on the graph, where
the parabola crosses the -axis. Furthermore, it can be separated into two terms,

The first term describes the axis of symmetry, the line . The second term,

, gives the distance the roots are away from the axis of symmetry.

If the parabola's vertex is on the -axis, then the corresponding equation has a
single repeated root on the line of symmetry, and this distance term is zero;
algebraically, the discriminant .

If the discriminant is positive, then the vertex is not on the -axis but the parabola
opens in the direction of the -axis, crossing it twice, so the corresponding equation
has two real roots. If the discriminant is negative, then the parabola opens in the
opposite direction, never crossing the -axis, and the equation has no real roots; in
this case the two complex-valued roots will be complex conjugates whose real part
is the value of the axis of symmetry.

Dimensional analysis [ edit ]

If the constants , , and/or are not unitless then the quantities and must
have the same units, because the terms and agree on their units. By the
same logic, the coefficient must have the same units as , irrespective of the
units of . This can be a powerful tool for verifying that a quadratic expression of
physical quantities has been set up correctly.

See also [ edit ]

Fundamental theorem of algebra

Vieta's formulas

Notes [ edit ]

1. ^ Sterling, Mary Jane (2010), Algebra I For Dummies , Wiley Publishing,

p. 219, ISBN 978-0-470-55964-2
2. ^ "Discriminant review" , Khan Academy, retrieved 2019-11-10
3. ^ "Understanding the quadratic formula" , Khan Academy, retrieved
2019-11-10
4. ^ "Axis of Symmetry of a Parabola. How to find axis from equation or from a graph.
To find the axis of symmetry ..." , www.mathwarehouse.com, retrieved
2019-11-10
5. ^ Rich, Barnett; Schmidt, Philip (2004), Schaum's Outline of Theory and
Problems of Elementary Algebra , The McGraw–Hill Companies, Chapter 13
§4.4, p. 291 , ISBN 0-07-141083-X
6. ^ Li, Xuhui. An Investigation of Secondary School Algebra Teachers'
Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching Algebraic Equation Solving, p. 56
(ProQuest, 2007): "The quadratic formula is the most general method for
solving quadratic equations and is derived from another general method:
completing the square."
7. ^ Rockswold, Gary. College algebra and trigonometry and precalculus, p.
178 (Addison Wesley, 2002).
8. ^ Beckenbach, Edwin et al. Modern college algebra and trigonometry, p. 81
(Wadsworth Pub. Co., 1986).
9. ^ Specifically, Fagnano began with the equation and found
the solutions to be

(In the 18th century, the square was conventionally written as .)

Fagnano, Giulio Carlo (1750), "Applicazione dell' algoritmo nuovo Alla resoluzione
analitica dell' equazioni del secondo, del terzo, e del quarto grado" [Application of
a new algorithm to the analytical resolution of equations of the second, third,
and fourth degree], Produzioni matematiche del conte Giulio Carlo di
Fagnano, Marchese de' Toschi, e DiSant' Ononio (in Italian), vol. 1, Pesaro:
Gavelliana, Appendice seconda, eq. 6, p. 467, doi:10.3931/e-rara-8663

10. ^ Goff, Gerald K. (1976), "The Citardauq Formula", The Mathematics

Teacher, 69 (7): 550–551, JSTOR 27960584
11. ^ a b Hoehn, Larry (1975), "A More Elegant Method of Deriving the Quadratic
Formula", The Mathematics Teacher, 68 (5): 442–443,
doi:10.5951/MT.68.5.0442 , JSTOR 27960212
12. ^ Starting from a quadratic equation of the form , Śrīdhara's
method, as quoted by Bhāskara II (c. 1150): "Multiply both sides of the
equation by a number equal to four times the [coefficient of the] square, and
add to them a number equal to the square of the original [coefficient of the]
unknown quantity. [Then extract the root.]".

Smith 1923, p. 446

13. ^ Debnath, Lokenath (2009), "The legacy of Leonhard Euler – a tricentennial
tribute", International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and
Technology, 40 (3): 353–388, doi:10.1080/00207390802642237 ,
S2CID 123048345
14. ^ a b Clark, A. (1984). Elements of abstract algebra. Courier Corporation. p.
146.
15. ^ Prasolov, Viktor; Solovyev, Yuri (1997), Elliptic functions and elliptic
integrals , AMS Bookstore, p. 134, ISBN 978-0-8218-0587-9
16. ^ Forsythe, George E. (1969), "Solving a Quadratic Equation on a Computer" ,
The Mathematical Sciences: A Collection of Essays, MIT Press, pp. 138–
152, ISBN 0-262-03026-8
17. ^ a b Goualard, Frédéric (2023), The Ins and Outs of Solving Quadratic
Equations with Floating-Point Arithmetic (Technical report), University of
Nantes, HAL hal-04116310
18. ^ Thompson, H. Bradford (1987), "Good numerical technique in chemistry:
The quadratic equation", Journal of Chemical Education, 64 (12): 1009,
doi:10.1021/ed064p1009
19. ^ This example comes from:

Henrici, Peter (1982), Essentials of Numerical Analysis with Pocket

Calculator Demonstrations, New York: Wiley, p. 13
20. ^ Forsythe, George E. (1966), How Do You Solve a Quadratic Equation
(PDF) (Tech report), Stanford University, STAN-CS-66-40 (AD639052)
21. ^ Baker, Henry G. (1998), "You Could Learn a Lot from a Quadratic:
Overloading Considered Harmful", SIGPLAN Notices, 33 (1): 30–38,
doi:10.1145/609742.609746
22. ^ Mastronardi, Nicola; Van Dooren, Paul (2015), "Revisiting the stability of
computing the roots of a quadratic polynomial" , Electronic Transactions on
Numerical Analysis, 44: 73–83
23. ^ Irving 2013, p. 34.
24. ^ The Cambridge Ancient History Part 2 Early History of the Middle East ,
Cambridge University Press, 1971, p. 530, ISBN 978-0-521-07791-0
25. ^ a b Irving 2013, p. 39.
26. ^ Aitken, Wayne, "A Chinese Classic: The Nine Chapters" (PDF), Mathematics
Department, California State University, retrieved 28 April 2013
27. ^ Smith 1923, p. 380 .
28. ^ Smith 1923, p. 134 .
29. ^ Bradley, Michael. The Birth of Mathematics: Ancient Times to 1300, p. 86
(Infobase Publishing 2006).
30. ^ Mackenzie, Dana. The Universe in Zero Words: The Story of Mathematics
as Told through Equations, p. 61 (Princeton University Press, 2012).
31. ^ Stillwell, John (2004), Mathematics and Its History (2nd ed.), Springer,
p. 87, ISBN 0-387-95336-1
32. ^ O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F. (2000), "Sridhara" , MacTutor
History of Mathematics Archive, University of St Andrews
33. ^ Irving 2013, p. 42.
34. ^ Struik, D. J.; Stevin, Simon (1958), The Principal Works of Simon Stevin,
Mathematics (PDF), vol. II–B, C. V. Swets & Zeitlinger, p. 470
35. ^ Rene Descartes, The Geometry

References [ edit ]

Smith, David Eugene (1923), History of Mathematics , vol. 2, Boston: Ginn

Irving, Ron (2013), Beyond the Quadratic Formula , MAA, ISBN 978-0-88385-
783-0

V·T·E Polynomials and polynomial functions [hide]

Zero polynomial (degree undefined or −1 or −∞) ·

Constant function (0) · Linear function (1)
(Linear equation) · Quadratic function (2)
By degree (Quadratic equation) · Cubic function (3)
(Cubic equation) · Quartic function (4)
(Quartic equation) · Quintic function (5) ·
Sextic equation (6) · Septic equation (7)
Univariate · Bivariate · Multivariate · Monomial ·
By properties Binomial · Trinomial · Irreducible · Square-free ·
Homogeneous · Quasi-homogeneous
Factorization · Greatest common divisor · Division ·
Horner's method of evaluation ·
Tools and algorithms
Polynomial identity testing · Resultant · Discriminant ·
Gröbner basis

Categories: Elementary algebra Equations

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