• Want to help us with this year's BoS Trials?
    Let us know before 30 June. See this thread for details
  • Looking for HSC notes and resources?
    Check out our Notes & Resources page

Equations Reducible to Quadratics (1 Viewer)

random-1006

Banned
Joined
Jun 25, 2010
Messages
988
Gender
Male
HSC
2009
2^2x -9.2^x +8=0

use brackets please

im pretty sure you mean

2 ^ (2x) - 9 . 2^x +8
= ( 2^x)^2 - 9 . 2^x +8 { when you raise a power to anther power, multiply powers}
let u = 2^x
u^2 -9u +8=0
(u-1)(u-8)=0

u=1, u= 8
2^x= 1 ---> x=0

2^x= 8--> x=3

x=0, x=3
 

MrBrightside

Brightest Member
Joined
Jan 18, 2010
Messages
2,032
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
N/A
use brackets please

im pretty sure you mean

2 ^ (2x) - 9 . 2^x +8
= ( 2^x)^2 - 9 . 2^x +8 { when you raise a power to anther power, multiply powers}
let u = 2^x
u^2 -9u +8=0
(u-1)(u-8)=0

u=1, u= 8
2^x= 1 ---> x=0

2^x= 8--> x=3

x=0, x=3
holyshit thank you :), i put 1 instead of 8 in the last line thnx....btw in the book it has no brackets, its like that.

so basically the 9.2 is round down...correct?
 

random-1006

Banned
Joined
Jun 25, 2010
Messages
988
Gender
Male
HSC
2009
holyshit thank you :), i put 1 instead of 8 in the last line thnx....btw in the book it has no brackets, its like that.

so basically the 9.2 is round down...correct?

no, what i meant was 2^2x, even though it was fairly obvious you meant "2 to the power of 2x"

someone could read it as 2^2 times x, ie 4x, so put brackets around powers and stuff when there is more than just one number/term in the index

and the 9.2 means 9 times 2^x, you dont ROUND, its another notation for multiplication, just make sure you are aware of it
 
Last edited:

MrBrightside

Brightest Member
Joined
Jan 18, 2010
Messages
2,032
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
N/A
no, what i meant was 2^2x, even though it was fairly obvious you meant "2 to the power of 2x"

someone could read it as 2^2 times x, ie 4x, so put brackets around powers and stuff when there is more than just one number/term in the index

and the 9.2 means 9 times 2^x, you dont ROUND, its another notation for multiplication, just make sure you are aware of it
okay thx, wow wtf how come the book doesn't mention that....i bet the book was designed to make people fail.
 

random-1006

Banned
Joined
Jun 25, 2010
Messages
988
Gender
Male
HSC
2009
okay thx, wow wtf how come the book doesn't mention that....i bet the book was designed to make people fail.

the teacher should have mentioned that, common notation ( especially considering there are already x's in the eqn, if they put an x for "9 times 2^x" that would make it seem even more confusing)

its not the books fault lol, which book is it from by the way , maths in focus?
 

MrBrightside

Brightest Member
Joined
Jan 18, 2010
Messages
2,032
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
N/A
the teacher should have mentioned that, common notation ( especially considering there are already x's in the eqn, if they put an x for "9 times 2^x" that would make it seem even more confusing)

its not the books fault lol, which book is it from by the way , maths in focus?
teacher never told us tht...yea maths in focus (shit book at explaining things)
 

random-1006

Banned
Joined
Jun 25, 2010
Messages
988
Gender
Male
HSC
2009
teacher never told us tht...yea maths in focus (shit book at explaining things)

i used it , its alright, well i had a good teacher.

doesnt your teacher go over some examples before you do the textbook exercises.
 

MrBrightside

Brightest Member
Joined
Jan 18, 2010
Messages
2,032
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
N/A
i used it , its alright, well i had a good teacher.

doesnt your teacher go over some examples before you do the textbook exercises.
yeah he does, but like when u look at the book the questions r different.

anyways i'm stuck on this one :(...

Solve:

(x^2 - x)^2 + (x^2 - x) - 2 = 0 giving exact values. thx
 

random-1006

Banned
Joined
Jun 25, 2010
Messages
988
Gender
Male
HSC
2009
yeah he does, but like when u look at the book the questions r different.

anyways i'm stuck on this one :(...

Solve:

(x^2 - x)^2 + (x^2 - x) - 2 = 0 giving exact values. thx
well same sort of thing



everything is in brackets yes, makes it much easier to spot the substitution we make, we have a squared term , a linear term and a constant term =0

u= x^2 -x

u^2 +u -2=0
(u+2) ( u-1) =0 etc

u=-2, u-1

so x^2 -x =-2 and x^2 -x = 1

two eqns, solve using quadratic formula, etc, should get 4 answers
 

MrBrightside

Brightest Member
Joined
Jan 18, 2010
Messages
2,032
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
N/A
well same sort of thing



everything is in brackets yes, makes it much easier to spot the substitution we make, we have a squared term , a linear term and a constant term =0

u= x^2 -x

u^2 +u -2=0
(u+2) ( u-1) =0 etc

u=-2, u-1

so x^2 -x =-2 and x^2 -x = 1

two eqns, solve using quadratic formula, etc, should get 4 answers
ummm yea thx so the correct ans is 1 -+ root 5 / 2 ....only 2 ans for this question...as the next one has no solutions root - 7 (can't do).

PS: why is the standard letter u? my teacher used m. is there a meaning behind it?
 

random-1006

Banned
Joined
Jun 25, 2010
Messages
988
Gender
Male
HSC
2009
ummm yea thx so the correct ans is 1 -+ root 5 / 2 ....only 2 ans for this question...as the next one has no solutions root - 7 (can't do).

PS: why is the standard letter u? my teacher used m. is there a meaning behind it?

doesnt matter what letter, if you do 3 unit maths you will do integration by substitution and generally the letter used is u, just easy to write a u compared to any other letter i think, doesnt matter.

just noticing x^2 + x +c =0

e.g. if you had 3( sinx)^2 + 5sinx +3=0, you would substitute u= sinx,

heres one for you solve e^(x) + e^(-x) +3 =0, its a little different and theres a little trick
 

MrBrightside

Brightest Member
Joined
Jan 18, 2010
Messages
2,032
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
N/A
doesnt matter what letter, if you do 3 unit maths you will do integration by substitution and generally the letter used is u, just easy to write a u compared to any other letter i think, doesnt matter.

just noticing x^2 + x +c =0

e.g. if you had 3( sinx)^2 + 5sinx +3=0, you would substitute u= sinx,

heres one for you solve e^(x) + e^(-x) +3 =0, its a little different and theres a little trick
hmm thats different...what i did was

let m = x^e

m-m+3=0

3=0 (wrong i guess)
 

random-1006

Banned
Joined
Jun 25, 2010
Messages
988
Gender
Male
HSC
2009
hmm thats different...what i did was

let m = x^e

m-m+3=0

3=0 (wrong i guess)

mm yes, dont worry, its a common trick hopefully you will learn it now and will remember it forever lol

ok, now e^-x = 1/ e^x

what if we changed it to e^x + 1 / e^x +3 = 0

how would you go about solving that
 

hscishard

Active Member
Joined
Aug 4, 2009
Messages
2,033
Location
study room...maybe
Gender
Male
HSC
2011
mm yes, dont worry, its a common trick hopefully you will learn it now and will remember it forever lol

ok, now e^-x = 1/ e^x

what if we changed it to e^x + 1 / e^x +3 = 0

how would you go about solving that
I remember seeing that question in a 2 unit paper but it was logx instead of e^x
 

MrBrightside

Brightest Member
Joined
Jan 18, 2010
Messages
2,032
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
N/A
ummm dude...i'm getting m^2 + 4 - 0 which is incorrect as there is no b. o_O?

i did (x)^e + 1/ x^e + 3 = 0

X everything by x^e

(x^e)^2 + 1 + 3 = 0

let m = x^e

m^2 + 4 = 0 ...?
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 0, Guests: 1)

Top