Final answer:
The question is about the quadratic formula, which is used to solve equations of the form ax² + bx + c = 0. To find the solutions, substitute the constants a, b, and c into the formula -b ± √(b² - 4ac) / 2a, and calculate accordingly.
Step-by-step explanation:
The subject in question relates to solving a quadratic equation, which is a second-degree polynomial equation in one variable of the form ax² + bx + c = 0, where a, b, and c are constants, and a ≠ 0.
The solution to such an equation can be found using the quadratic formula, which is -b ± √(b² - 4ac) / 2a.
When substituting the values of a, b, and c from the provided equation into the quadratic formula, you can solve for the variable, often denoted as x or t.
For example, if we have a given quadratic equation with constants a = 1, b = 10.0, and c = -200, we would substitute these into the quadratic formula to find the solutions to the equation.
Step-by-step, first you would calculate the discriminant by squaring b and subtracting 4 times a times c from it.
Then, you apply the formula to find the two possible solutions for the variable.