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Mathematician Finds Easier Way to Solve Quadratic Equations (2020)

popularmechanics.com

10 points by davidst 4 years ago · 5 comments

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sharikone 4 years ago

I hope this article is a joke. I bet 70 % of high school students have been taught this method.

  • niklasbuschmann 4 years ago

    Are you sure? Here in Germany the basic fact that the two solutions of a quadratic equation must multiply / sum to the two coefficients is taught in high school, but I mean this is only useful for small numbers that are easily factorized.

    But the more useful and well-known quadratic formula is always derived with “completing the square”, not the method described in the article (which I think is quite neat). Especially since I would suspect many students never really grasp “completing the square” and just skip to memorizing the quadratic formula.

  • karmakaze 4 years ago

    I also learned this graphically as the roots are symmetric intersections of a parabola with the x-axis equidistant from their average.

  • chafporte 4 years ago

    and yet you don't produce an older link to back up your claim.

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