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To complete the square we will start by figuring out 1/2 of the coefficient of x (which is also 1/2). 1/2 of 1/2 is 1/4. We then take this ans square it. 1/4 squared is 1/16. This is what we will add to each side to "complete the square":
On the left we now have a perfect square trinomial. On the right we just add 1 and 1/16:
Now we find the square root of each side:
which simplifies to:
We can now remove the absolute value:
(Note: The extra 0 on the left side is there because Algebra.com's software will not let me use the "plus or minus" symbol without having a number or variable in front of it.)
And last of all we subtract 1/4 (or add a -1/4):
which can also be written as: