Math · Week 5
Standard form, zeros, and factoring trinomials.
A quadratic looks like ax² + bx + c. The graph is a parabola that opens up if a > 0 and down if a < 0.
Factoring turns the expression into (px + q)(rx + s). The zeros are the x-values that make each factor 0.
If the numbers do not factor cleanly, use the quadratic formula: x = (−b ± √(b² − 4ac)) / 2a.
The discriminant b² − 4ac tells you the number of real roots: positive means two, zero means one, negative means none.