How do you find the vertex of #y=2x^2-6x+1#?
2 Answers
By a process called completing the square, we find that the vertex is at (3/2, -7/2).
Explanation:
Completing the square goes like this. Take the quadratic and linear terms, 2(x^2)-6x. We can imagine this as 2*((x^2)-3x). Now think of the identity
(a+b)^2 = (a^2)+2ab+(b^2).
We can think of a as x, and if we take b equal to -3/2 then the -3x fits with 2ab. So the (b^2) part that completes the square is 9/4. We then have:
(x-3/2)^2 = (x^2)-3x+9/4
Multiplying by 2 because we started with 2(x^2):
2*(x-3/2)^2 = 2(x^2)-6x+9/2
That is "almost right". But we have
y = 2(x^2)-6x+1.
To make up our difference we subtract 7/2 from our completed-square expression and we get:
y = 2*(x-3/2)^2 - 7/2
Now we can read off the vertex. The x value is where the squared quantity is zero, thus x = 3/2. And the y value at the vertex is -7/2 because that's what's left when the completed square is zero.
Completing the square solves quadratic equations too. Look for that phrase on Google or whatever search engine you use.
Explanation:
The given equation
Dividing both sides by 2 we have
putting
new equation of parabola as
So putting X=0 and Y =0 we will get