Final answer:
To solve a quadratic equation using the quadratic formula, the equation must be in the standard form. Apply the quadratic formula to find the solutions and consider the context to determine if negative solutions are valid.
Step-by-step explanation:
To solve the given quadratic equation with the quadratic formula, we first need to bring the equation into the standard form ax² + bx + c = 0. Once in that form, we can apply the quadratic formula which is x = (-b ± √(b² - 4ac))/(2a). Remember to check whether the solutions you obtain are viable in the context of the problem, as sometimes a negative solution might not be applicable to a real-life scenario.
For example, if we have the equation x² + 0.0211x - 0.0211 = 0, we can directly plug in the values into the quadratic formula. After calculating, any negative solutions must be considered in context. In problems where variables represent quantities that cannot be negative, such as distance or time, negative solutions should be disregarded.