What is the discriminant of x2=4?

1 Answer
Sep 11, 2014

First this quadratic equation must be put in standard form.

ax2+bx+c=0

To accomplish this you have to subtract 4 from both sides of the equation to end up with ...

x24=0

We now see that a=1,b=0,c=4

Now substitute in the values for a, b, and c in the discriminant

Discriminant: b24ac=(0)24(1)(4)=0+16=16

Please see the following link for another example usage of the discriminant.

What is the discriminant of 3x210x+4=0?