Algebra.Com's Answer #56032 by jim_thompson5910(35256)  You can put this solution on YOUR website! To find the vertex, lets complete the square and put the equation in vertex form:\r \n" );
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document.write( " Solved by pluggable solver: Completing the Square to Get a Quadratic into Vertex Form | \n" );
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document.write( " Start with the given equation \n" );
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document.write( " Add to both sides \n" );
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document.write( " Factor out the leading coefficient  \n" );
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document.write( " Take half of the x coefficient to get (ie ). \n" );
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document.write( " Now square to get (ie ) \n" );
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document.write( " Now add and subtract this value inside the parenthesis. Doing both the addition and subtraction of does not change the equation \n" );
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document.write( " Now factor to get  \n" );
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document.write( " Distribute \n" );
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document.write( " Multiply \n" );
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document.write( " Now add to both sides to isolate y \n" );
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document.write( " Combine like terms \n" );
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document.write( " Now the quadratic is in vertex form where , , and . Remember (h,k) is the vertex and \"a\" is the stretch/compression factor. \n" );
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document.write( " Check: \n" );
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document.write( " Notice if we graph the original equation we get: \n" );
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document.write( " Graph of . Notice how the vertex is ( , ). \n" );
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document.write( " Notice if we graph the final equation we get: \n" );
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document.write( " Graph of . Notice how the vertex is also ( , ). \n" );
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document.write( " So if these two equations were graphed on the same coordinate plane, one would overlap another perfectly. So this visually verifies our answer. \n" );
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document.write( "So the vertex is:\r \n" );
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document.write( "(-0.5, -6.25)\r \n" );
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document.write( "Now lets find the intercepts. The easiest way is to use the quadratic formula:\r \n" );
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document.write( " Solved by pluggable solver: SOLVE quadratic equation with variable | \n" );
document.write( "Quadratic equation (in our case ) has the following solutons: \n" );
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document.write( " For these solutions to exist, the discriminant should not be a negative number. \n" );
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document.write( " First, we need to compute the discriminant : . \n" );
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document.write( " Discriminant d=25 is greater than zero. That means that there are two solutions: . \n" );
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document.write( " Quadratic expression can be factored: \n" );
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document.write( " Again, the answer is: 2, -3.\n" );
document.write( "Here's your graph: \n" );
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document.write( "So the x-intercepts are x=2, x=-3\r \n" );
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document.write( "And here's the graph\r \n" );
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document.write( " graph of \n" );
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