Some important relationships are not linear—those based on gravity, on area or volume, even equations that predict the best selling price for a product. Skydivers, painters, astronauts, and retailers all use a class of functions called quadratic, from the Latin word meaning "to make a square."
These teaching notes can be printed for quick referencing.
In this chapter students will:
- build on their knowledge of systems of equations and inequalities learned in Chapter 6
- learn to solve quadratic equations and functions
- use quadratic equations to solve real-world problems
- learn to find square roots and graph quadratic functions
- solve quadratic equations using the quadratic formula
- use the discriminant to find the number of solutions of a quadratic equation
Prerequisite Skills
- graphing coordinate pairs
- evaluating expressions
- making a table of values
- graphing linear inequalities
- finding squares of numbers
- using rational and irrational numbers
- solving equations
- finding square roots
- simplifying square root expressions
- evaluating formulas
- graphing quadratic functions
Key Terms
- axis of symmetry
- discriminant
- maximum value
- minimum value
- negative square root
- parabola
- perfect squares
- principle square root
- quadratic equation
- quadratic formula
- quadratic function
- square root
- standard form of a quadratic equation
- standard form of a quadratic function
- vertex
- vertical motion formula