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In the quadratic formula, you have -b +- square root of ( b^2 - 4ac) all over 2a. There are three cases:

No values:

If the discriminant is negative, the square root of b^2 -4ac has no values, because we cannot take the square root of a negative number.

One value:

If it is zero, than the square root is also zero. This means that there is one solution because +- 0 is always just 0. (-b+-0)/2a only has one value.

2 values:

if the discriminant is positive then it has a square root. BUT, there is a difference between here and the last step. (-b +- discriminant )/ 2a has 2 values: one for the positive and one for the negative.

* * * * *

Minor amendment:

-b +- square root of ( b^2 - 4ac) all over 2a is the quadratic formula.

The discriminant is simply b2 - 4ac

If b2 - 4ac > 0 then there are two distinct real roots to the quadratic;

If b2 - 4ac = 0 then there is one real roots to the quadratic (or two identical roots);

If b2 - 4ac < 0 then there are no real roots to the quadratic.

The values of the roots are exactly as described in the earlier answer.

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What is the discriminant to determine how many real number solutions the quadratic equation -4j2 plus 3j-28 equals 0 has?

The discriminant is -439 and so there are no real solutions.


What is true of the discriminant when the two real number solutions to a quadratic equation are rational numbers?

The discriminant must be a perfect square or a square of a rational number.


What is a discriminant and how does help to solve equations?

In the quadratic formula, the discriminant is b2-4ac. If the discriminant is positive, the equation has two real solutions. If it equals zero, the equation has one real solution. If the discriminant is negative, it has two imaginary solutions. This is because you find the square root of the discriminant and add or subtract it from -b and divide the sum or difference by 2a. If the square root is of a positive number, then you get two different solutions, one from adding the discriminant to -b and one from subtracting the discriminant from -b. If the square root is of zero, then it equals zero, and the solution is -b/2a. If the square root is of a negative number, then you have two imaginary solutions because you can't take the square root of a negative number and get a real number. One solution is from subtracting the discriminant from -b and dividing by 2a, and the other is from adding it to -b and dividing by 2a. The parabola on the left has a positive discriminant. The parabola in the middle has a discriminant of zero. The parabola on the right has a negative discriminant.


Use the discriminant to determine how many real number solutions the quadratic equation -4j to the second power plus 3j - 28 equals 0 has?

It has no real roots.


What does the discriminant have to be in order for the roots of a quadratic to be irrational?

The discriminant must be a positive number which is not a perfect square.