Question

Compare the steps to solve a quadratic equation to those of solving a linear equation. How are the steps similar? How are they different?

Answer 1

Answer:

A linear equation in two variables doesn't involve any power higher than one for either variable. It has the general form Ax + By + C = 0, where A, B and C are constants. It's possible to simplify this to y = mx + b, where m = ( −A / B) and b is the value of y when x = 0. A quadratic equation, on the other hand, involves one of the variables raised to the second power. It has the general form y = ax2 + bx + c. Apart from the adding complexity of solving a quadratic equation compared to a linear one, the two equations produce different types of graphs.

A linear equation produces a straight line when you graph it. Each value of x produces one and only one value of y, so the relationship between them is said to be one-to-one. When you graph a quadratic equation, you produce a parabola that begins at a single point, called the vertex, and extends upward or downward in the y direction. The relationship between x and y is not one-to-one because for any given value of y except the y-value of the vertex point, there are two values for x.

Linear equations in standard form (Ax + By + C = 0) are easy to convert to convert to slope intercept form (y = mx +b), and in this form, you can immediately identify the slope of the line, which is m, and the point at which the line crosses the y-axis. You can graph the equation easily, because all you need are two points. For example, suppose you have the linear equation y = 12_x_ + 5. Choose two values for x, say 1 and 4, and you immediately get the values 17 and 53 for y. Plot the two points (1, 17) and (4, 53), draw a line through them, and you're done.

Step-by-step explanation:

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