Solving equations

Outcomes

In this course you will learn how to:

1. Solve quadratic equations by factorisation.
2. Solve quadratic equations by using the quadratic formula.
3. Solve simultaneous equations involving quadratic equations
4. Solve word problems involving quadratic equations.

There are a few different ways to solve quadratics: factorising, using the quadratic formula or by completing the square. In this video we look at solving by factorising.

In this video we’re going to discover how to factorise quadratics that don’t have 1 as the coefficient of the x-squared term. These are called non-monic quadratics. We can do it by trial and error and just spotting the factors, but this takes a lot of trial an error. Luckily there is a different method we can use instead, which we will looks at in this video.

By the end of this unit you will be able to:

• Solve a quadratic equation by completing the square.

By the end of this unit you will be able to:

• Apply the zero-product law.
• Solve rational quadratic equations which have fractions with the unknown in the denominator.
• Factorise quadratic expressions to solve for the unknown variable.

By the end of this unit you will be able to:

• Solve equations with a single variable which are called linear equations
• Solve equations with a single variable that is squared (quadratic equations) by factorisation.