Second-degree

equations:
Too frequent to be
feared
When you hear your teacher acclaiming: "The second-degree equation could be found
everywhere!". You probably think your teacher is not in their right mind... Where could you find

−b ± √b 2−4 ac
? Do you really need to know that?
2a

First of all, you must know there are countless situations that can be explained or represented
by the following expression: a x 2+ bx+ c=0. And, as you can imagine, you are not going to find

−b ± √b 2−4 ac
as itself but you need it to solve or understand the previously mentioned
2a
situations. Let me show you what I am talking about!

It all started around 3000 BC with the Babylonians. They were one of the world's first
civilisations, and came up with some great ideas like agriculture, irrigation and writing. They
plotted the paths of the Sun, the Moon and the planets, and recorded them on clay tablets
(which you can still see in the British Museum). To the Babylonians we owe the modern ideas of
angle, including the way that the circle is divided up into 360 degrees (owing to a small
miscalculation, one per day). We also owe the Babylonians for the rather less pleasant
invention of the (dreaded) taxman. And this was one of the reasons that the Babylonians
needed to solve quadratic equations.

TASK 1

Let's suppose that you are a Babylonian farmer. Somewhere on your farm you have a square
field on which you grow some crop. We can call “c” the amount of the crop you can grow on
the field. Double the length of each side of the field and you find that you can grow four times
as much of the crop as before! Why is it possible? Justify your answer.

In mathematical terms, if we consider “x” the length of the side of the field, “m” the amount of
crop you can grow on a square field of side length 1, and “c” the amount of crop that you can
grow. Then, how can you represent the amount of crop you can grow? Give the formula.

Quadratic equations and areas are linked together like brothers and sisters in the same family.
However, at the moment we don't have to solve anything - until the tax man arrives, that is!
Cheerily he says to you: "I want you to give me 720 crops to pay for the taxes on your farm."
You now have a dilemma: how big a field do you need to grow that amount of crop if you can
grow 5 crops on a square field of side length 1?

Let’s continue! It’s supposed that finding square roots by using a calculator is easy for us, but
was more of a problem for the Babylonians. In fact, they developed a method of successive
approximation to the answer which is identical to the used by modern computers to solve
much harder problems than quadratic equations!!

Now, not all fields are square. Let's now suppose that the farmer
has a more oddly shaped field with two triangular sections as
shown on the right.

For appropriate values of “a” and “b” the amount of crop that the
farmer can grow in this field is given by c=a x2 +bx .

This looks a lot more like the quadratic equation that we are used to, and even under the evil
eye of the taxman, it’s a lot harder to solve. Yet the Babylonians came up with the answer
again.

TASK 2

Do you think the Babylonians applied the formula that you have learned? I mean, this one:

Absolutely no!! They used an alternative method in order to solve the second-degree equation.
Now, let's show you this method by solving x 2+ 10 x=39:

1. Start with a square of side x (which therefore represents x 2).

 10
2. Add to this 10x by adding 4 rectangles of length x, and width 4 . Each small rectangle

10 x 5x
has an area ( or ), total 10x. We know this has a total area of 39.
4 2

5 25
3. Complete the square by adding 4 little squares with side ( area of each ). The
2 4

25
outside square therefore has an area of 39+ 4 · =39+25=64 . The sides of the
4

5 5
outside square are therefore 8. But each side is of length x + + , so x + 5 = 8, giving x
2 2
= 3.

Now is your turn:

a) Search on the Internet the name of this amazing method.

b) Find a solution for x 2+ 12 x=4 48 with the previous method.
c) Check the solution with the formula learned in classroom.

Woow!! Incredible! don't you think so? Let’s move on! We now fastforward 1000 years to the
Ancient Greeks and see what they made of quadratic equations. The Greeks were superb
mathematicians and discovered much of the mathematics we still use today. One of the
equations they were interested in solving was the (simple) quadratic equation
 x 2=2

They knew that this equation had a solution. In fact, it is the length of the hypotenuse of a
right-angled triangle which had sides of length one. They found the first irrational number, √ 2 .
But this was not the only one they found.

TASK 3

Let’s start with a rectangle, and then remove a square from it with the same side length as the shortest
side of the rectangle. If the longest side of the rectangle has length 1 and the shortest side has length
“x”, then the square has sides of length “x”. Removing it from the rectangle gives a smaller rectangle
with longest side “x” and smallest side “1 - x”. So far, so abstract. Can you make a sketch with all the
information?

However, the Greeks believed that the rectangle which had the most aesthetic proportions (the so
called Golden Rectangle) was that for which the large and the small rectangles constructed above have
the same proportions. Represent this relationship between the two rectangles with a second-degree
equation and then, solve it.

Do you recognize which the positive solution is? How is it called? Finally, search on the Internet one
monument where you can identify that kind of rectangles.

We could continue showing more examples or situations where the second-degree equation has a
special role. Here are a few more applications in which that is indispensable: That drop goal, grandfather
clocks, rabbits, areas, singing, tax, architecture, sundials, stopping, electronics, micro-chips, fridges,
sunflowers, acceleration, paper, planets, ballistics, shooting, jumping, asteroids, quantum theory, chaos,
windows, tennis, badminton, flight, radio, pendulum, weather, falling, shower, differential equations,
telescope, golf… As you can see, the quadratic equation has many applications and keep playing a
fundamental role in human history.

For the last task in this GEP activity, we suggest you enter the wonderful world of construction with
ruler-and-compass (drawing tool).

TASK 4

Straightedge and compass construction, also known as ruler-and-compass construction or classical

construction, is the construction of lengths, angles, and other geometric figures using ONLY an idealized
ruler and compass. Search on the Internet what an idealized ruler and aa idealized compass are.
In that case, you are going to learn another alternative method in order to solve the second-degree

equation different from task 2, now I am talking about a ruler-and-compass method. The method is
simple. Consider a second-degree equation like this x 2+ 4 x−5=0. BE CAREFUL!!!!!!!
a MUST BE 1. Otherwise, the equation has to be modified.

Let's continue! Our starting information is the origin and points at distances 1, b = 4, and c = ─5 from the
origin:

1. We can assume that the points are at (0,a) = (0,1), (b,0) = (4,0),
and (0,c) = (0, ─5) respectively. Thus our initial setup looks like
the right figure.

2. Construct the point (─b,c), in that case, the point

(─4, ─5) (one method is to construct perpendicular
bisectors of the axes at (─4, ─5) and (0, ─5) and then
take the intersection). This is done in the left figure.

3. Construct the midpoint of (─b,c) and (0,1) (in that case, the point (─4, ─5) and (0,1)) as in the
following figure:

4. Draw the circle with centre at that midpoint which passes

through (─b,c) (and thus also (0,1)) in that case, the point
(─4, ─5), as shown in the right figure.
That’s all! Now find the solution of x 2+ 4 x−5=0 with the formula learned in classroom and then

compare them with the intersections of the circle with the x–axis. What can you see?

To sum up, solve x 2−3 x−4=0 with this graphic method and check the solution with the
formula learned in classroom.