How do you use the quadratic formula to solve 2x^2-5x-2=0?

1 Answer
Aug 24, 2017

See a solution process below:

Explanation:

The quadratic formula states:

For color(red)(a)x^2 + color(blue)(b)x + color(green)(c) = 0, the values of x which are the solutions to the equation are given by:

x = (-color(blue)(b) +- sqrt(color(blue)(b)^2 - (4color(red)(a)color(green)(c))))/(2 * color(red)(a))

Substituting:

color(red)(2) for color(red)(a)

color(blue)(-5) for color(blue)(b)

color(green)(-2) for color(green)(c) gives:

x = (-color(blue)((-5)) +- sqrt(color(blue)((-5))^2 - (4 * color(red)(2) * color(green)(-2))))/(2 * color(red)(2))

x = (5 +- sqrt(25 - (-16)))/4

x = (5 +- sqrt(25 + 16))/4

x = (5 +- sqrt(41))/4