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| Question 263378:   Verify that -2 is a root of the equation
  Find the other two roots, correct to 2 decimal places.
 Found 2 solutions by  drk, richwmiller:
 Answer by drk(1908)
      (Show Source): Answer by richwmiller(17219)
      (Show Source): 
You can put this solution on YOUR website! (x+2)(2x^2-3 x-4) = 0 there are several ways of veryfying that -2 is a solution
 You can plug -2 in for x and see if the equation comes out equal
 You can factor which I did.
 and here are the other two solutions
 by factoring
 
 
 | Solved by pluggable solver: Factoring using the AC method (Factor by Grouping) |  | 
 Looking at the expression
  , we can see that the first coefficient is  , the second coefficient is  , and the last term is  . 
 
 
 Now multiply the first coefficient
  by the last term  to get  . 
 
 
 Now the question is: what two whole numbers multiply to
  (the previous product) and add to the second coefficient  ? 
 
 
 To find these two numbers, we need to list all of the factors of
  (the previous product). 
 
 
 Factors of
  : 
 1,2,4,8
 
 -1,-2,-4,-8
 
 
 
 Note: list the negative of each factor. This will allow us to find all possible combinations.
 
 
 
 These factors pair up and multiply to
  . 
 1*(-8) = -8
 2*(-4) = -8
 (-1)*(8) = -8
 (-2)*(4) = -8
 
 
 Now let's add up each pair of factors to see if one pair adds to the middle coefficient
  : 
 
 
 
 | First Number | Second Number | Sum | | 1 | -8 | 1+(-8)=-7 |  | 2 | -4 | 2+(-4)=-2 |  | -1 | 8 | -1+8=7 |  | -2 | 4 | -2+4=2 | 
 
 
 
 From the table, we can see that there are no pairs of numbers which add to
  . So  cannot be factored. 
 
 
 ===============================================================
 
 
 
 
 
 Answer:
 
 
 
 So
  doesn't factor at all (over the rational numbers). 
 
 
 So
  is prime. 
 
 |  and using the quadratic formula
 
 
 | Solved by pluggable solver: SOLVE quadratic equation with variable |  | Quadratic equation  (in our case  ) has the following solutons: 
 
  
 For these solutions to exist, the discriminant
  should not be a negative number. 
 First, we need to compute the discriminant
  :  . 
 Discriminant d=41 is greater than zero. That means that there are two solutions:
  . 
 
  
  
 Quadratic expression
  can be factored: 
  Again, the answer is: 2.35078105935821, -0.850781059358212.
Here's your graph:
 
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