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| Question 834968:  2 parabolas have the same x intercepts (-2,0) and (4,0). The maximum or minimum value of the first is 2 times the maximum or minimum value of the other. how do I find the vetex location for each of these?
 Answer by Theo(13342)
      (Show Source): 
You can put this solution on YOUR website! if your roots of the equation are: x = -2 and x = 4, then the factors of the equation must be:
 (x+2) * (x-4) = 0
 multiply these factors together and you get one form of the equation that has those roots.
 that equation is:
 x^2 - 2x - 8 = 0
 you can graph this equation by setting y = x^2 - 2x - 8.
 we won't do that yet, but we will further down after we find the other equation.
 i'm going to assume this is the second equation, because then i only have to multiply by 2 rather than divide by 2 which is messier.
 so the second equation is:
 y = x^2 - 2x - 8
 the x-value of the vertex of this equation is the line of symmetry of this equation and is bound by the following formula:
 x = -b/2a
 a is the coefficient of the x^2 term.
 b is the coefficient of the x term.
 x = -b/2a becomes x = 2/2 which becomes x = 1
 the y-value of the vertex of this equation is found by finding f(-b/2a) which becomes f(1).
 this is found by replacing x with 1 in the equation to get:
 x^2 - 2x - 8 = 1^2 - 2*1 - 8 which is equal to 1 - 2 - 8 which is equal to -9.
 the vertex of the second equation is (1,-9).
 since the coefficient of the quadratic equation is positive, this will be a minimum point.
 now to the first equation.
 the minimum point of the first equation is 2 times the minimum point of the second equation.
 this makes the minimum point of the first equation equal to (1,-18)
 the x-value is the same.
 the y-value is 2 times the y-value of the second equation.
 instead of having f(1) = -9, we now have f(1) is equal to -18.
 this means that 2 * f(1) is equal to -18.
 since 2 * f(1) is equal to 2 * f(x) when x is equal to 1, then it appears that our first equation must be equal to 2 * f(x) which is 2 * (x^2 - 2x - 8) which makes our first equation equal to 2x^2 - 4x - 16.
 if we did this correctly, the first equation must have the same x intercepts and must also have a minimum value double that of the second equation.
 let's see if we can get that to happen.
 we start with:
 f(x) = 2x^2 - 4x - 16
 we set it equal to 0 to get:
 2x^2 -4x - 16 = 0
 we factor out the greatest common factor to get:
 2 * (x^2 - 2x - 8) = 0
 we factor to get:
 2 * (x-4) * (x+2) = 0
 our roots are the same as the second equation.
 our minimum value needs to be calculated off of the original equation which is:
 2x^2 - 4x - 16.
 a is equal to 2
 b is equal to -4
 x = -b/2a becomes x = 4/4 which is equal to 1.
 we have the same x-value.
 the y-value of the minimum point is f(1) which is equal to:
 2*1^2 - 4*1 - 16 which is equal to:
 2 - 4 - 16 which is equal to -18.
 
 the minimum point of the second equation is double the minimum point of the first equation.
 the graph of both equations is shown below:
 
  you can see hey have the same roots (x-intercepts) and the minimum value of the first equation is double the minimum value of the second equation.
 
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