Question #dd75d

1 Answer
Apr 10, 2017

#36# #-># two zeros.

Explanation:

The discriminant is simply #b^2-4ac#, that indicates how many zeros are in the equation.

With #x^2 + 2x - 8 = 0#, we can just sub in the values to find the number of zeros.

#b^2 - 4ac#

#=(2)^2 - 4(1)(-8)#

#=4+32#

#=36#

With a value of #>0# as the discriminant, this means that there are two zeros.

We can check our work by graphing the parabola.

graph{x^2 + 2x - 8 [-20.28, 20.26, -10.14, 10.14]}

As you can see, we are right!

Hope this helps :)