SOLUTION: Please help me solve by completing the square: x^2 + 15 x = -56

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Question 695874: Please help me solve by completing the square:
x^2 + 15 x = -56

Answer by mouk(232) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
+x%5E2+%2B+15x+=+-56+
+x%5E2+%2B+15x+%2B+56+=+0+
Solved by pluggable solver: COMPLETING THE SQUARE solver for quadratics
Read this lesson on completing the square by prince_abubu, if you do not know how to complete the square.
Let's convert 1z%5E2%2B15z%2B56=0 to standard form by dividing both sides by 1:
We have: 1z%5E2%2B15z%2B56=0. What we want to do now is to change this equation to a complete square %28z%2Bsomenumber%29%5E2+%2B+othernumber. How can we find out values of somenumber and othernumber that would make it work?
Look at %28z%2Bsomenumber%29%5E2: %28z%2Bsomenumber%29%5E2+=+z%5E2%2B2%2Asomenumber%2Ax+%2B+somenumber%5E2. Since the coefficient in our equation 1z%5E2%2Bhighlight_red%28+15%29+%2A+z%2B56=0 that goes in front of z is 15, we know that 15=2*somenumber, or somenumber+=+15%2F2. So, we know that our equation can be rewritten as %28z%2B15%2F2%29%5E2+%2B+othernumber, and we do not yet know the other number.
We are almost there. Finding the other number is simply a matter of not making too many mistakes. We need to find 'other number' such that %28z%2B15%2F2%29%5E2+%2B+othernumber is equivalent to our original equation 1z%5E2%2B15z%2Bhighlight_green%28+56+%29=0.


The highlighted red part must be equal to 56 (highlighted green part).

15%5E2%2F4+%2B+othernumber+=+56, or othernumber+=+56-15%5E2%2F4+=+-0.25.
So, the equation converts to %28z%2B15%2F2%29%5E2+%2B+-0.25+=+0, or %28z%2B15%2F2%29%5E2+=+0.25.

Our equation converted to a square %28z%2B15%2F2%29%5E2, equated to a number (0.25).

Since the right part 0.25 is greater than zero, there are two solutions:

system%28+%28z%2B15%2F2%29+=+%2Bsqrt%28+0.25+%29%2C+%28z%2B15%2F2%29+=+-sqrt%28+0.25+%29+%29
, or

system%28+%28z%2B15%2F2%29+=+0.5%2C+%28z%2B15%2F2%29+=+-0.5+%29
system%28+z%2B15%2F2+=+0.5%2C+z%2B15%2F2+=+-0.5+%29
system%28+z+=+0.5-15%2F2%2C+z+=+-0.5-15%2F2+%29

system%28+z+=+-7%2C+z+=+-8+%29
Answer: z=-7, -8.