How do you solve $6x^2+5=2x^2+1$ ?

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Answer 1 · 2016-09-10T10:59:08

There is no real solution for $x$

Usually we would make a quadratic equation equal to 0.
However this example is a special case because there is no term in $x$

Re-arrange to give:

$6x^2 -2x^2 = 1-5$

$4x^2 = -4" " larr$ alarm bells should start ringing!

$x^2 = -1$

This equation cannot be solved using real numbers because we cannot find the square root of a negative number.

To continue requires using complex numbers...

How do you solve 6x^2+5=2x^2+16x^2+5=2x^2+1?