SOLUTION: What are you really solving for when solving quadratic equations?

Question 383528: What are you really solving for when solving quadratic equations?
Answer by Earlsdon(6294) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!
You are solving for the coordinates on the x-axis where the parabola (the graph of a quadratic equation) intersects the x-axis, if it does intersect it.
You will usually have two different values of x but not always.
If the parabola just touches the x-axis, then you will have a "double" solution in which the two values of the x-coordinate are identical.
If the parabola does not intersect the x-axis, then the solution to the quadratic equation will not be "real" numbers but "complex" numbers of the form
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