You can put this solution on YOUR website! equation is a^2 = 5a
divide both sides of this equation by a to get:
a^2/a = 5
simplify to get:
a = 5
solving it this way tells you that your solution set is {5}.
there is something missing, however.
the equation is also satisfied with a = 0.
you can also solve it this way:
equation is a^2 = 5a
subtract 5a from both sides of the equation to get:
a^2 - 5a = 0
factor to get:
a * (a-5) = 0
set each of the factors equal to 0 to get:
a = 0
a-5 = 0
solve for a to get:
a = 0 or a = 5
your solution set this way is {0,5} which is more correct.
to graph, raplace a with x to get:
x^2 - 5x = 0 and then graph as shown below:
your solution set is {0,5}
you can also graph as 2 equations and then find the intersection.
your equations are:
y = x^2
y = 5x
graph these two equations and you will get what is is shown below:
the interssection of these two lines is at x = 0 and x = 5.
when x = 0, x^2 = 0 and 5x = 0
when x = 5, x^2 = 25 and 5x = 25
whenever the two sides of the equataion can form a quadratic when you bring them all over to one side of the equation, it's best to solve it that way rather than dividing and simplifying because then you don't remove some of the possible solutions.
