Question

How do you solve `x^2+3=0`?

Answer 1

Put all the variables on one side of the equal sign, then solve from there.

Explanation:

You want to get all the variables over to one side, so subtract 3 over to the right side. You should then get `x^2=-3`.

You'd then square root both sides to get the simplified version of x.

`sqrt(x^2)=sqrt(-3)`

The square root of `x^2` is simply x, but the `sqrt(-3)` is more complicated, as you can't get the square root of a negative number. You'd have to involve `i`, or the idea of an imaginary number.

(Right now, we have `x=sqrt(-3)`

Because `i=sqrt(-1)`, we could multiply our 3 and `i`.
If `sqrt(-3) = 3*sqrt(-1) = 3i`, then `x=3i`.