Question

What is the first step in solving the quadratic equation x2 = 9/16

Answer 1

x² = (9/16)

The first step is to take square root of both sides.

√x² = √(9/16)

x = 3/4

Answer: take the square root of both sides of the equation

Answer 2

The equation is
`\displaystyle{ x^2= (9)/(16)`. We can rewrite the equation as:


`\displaystyle{ x^2= ((3)/(4))^2`.

Our next step here is to take the square root of both sides, remembering that
`√(x^2)=|x|`.

Thus, we have
`\displaystyle{ |x|= (3)/(4)`. Our final step is solving the absolute value equation, which yields:


`\displaystyle{ x= (3)/(4)` or
`\displaystyle{ x= -(3)/(4)`.


Solution set: {
`-(3)/(4), (3)/(4)` }