Relations between Roots and Coefficients.

(1) Relation between roots and coefficients of quadratic equation:If  and  are the roots of
quadratic equation ax 2  bx  c  0 , (a  0) then
b coefficient of x
Sum of roots  S      
a coefficient of x 2

c constant term
Product of roots  P   .   
a coefficient of x 2

If roots of quadratic equation ax 2  bx  c  0 (a  0) are  and  then

b 2  4 ac  D
(i) (   )  (   ) 2  4   
a a
b 2  2 ac
(ii)  2   2  (   ) 2  2 
a2
b b 2  4 ac  b D
(iii)  2   2  (   ) (   ) 2  4   
a2 a2
b(b 2  3 ac)
(iv)  3   3  (   )3  3 (   )  
a3
 (b 2  ac) b 2  4 ac
(v)  3   3  (   )3  3 (   )  (   ) 2  4 {(   )2   } 
a3
2
 b 2  2 ac  c2
(vi)   
4 4
 {(   )  2 }  2 
2 2 2 2
  2
 2

 a  a2

 b(b 2  2ac) b 2  4 ac
(vii)  4   4  ( 2   2 )( 2   2 ) 
a4
b 2  ac
(viii)  2     2  (   ) 2   
a2
   2   2 (   ) 2  2 b 2  2ac
(ix)    
    ac
bc
(x)  2    2   (   )  
a2
2 2
   a 4   4 ( 2   2 ) 2  2 2  2 b 2 D  2 a 2 c 2
(xi)        
     2 2  2 2 a2c2
(2) Formation of an equation with given roots: A quadratic equation whose roots are  and 
is given by (x   )(x   )  0
 x 2  (   )x    0 i.e. x 2  (sum of roots) x  (product of roots )  0
 x 2  Sx  P  0

(3) Equation in terms of the roots of another equation:If ,  are roots of the equation
ax 2  bx  c  0 , then the equation whose roots are
(i) –, – ax 2  bx  c  0 (Replace x by – x)
(ii) 1 /  , 1 /   cx 2  bx  a  0 (Replace x by 1/x)
(iii)  n ,  n ; n N a( x 1 / n ) 2  b ( x 1 / n )  c  0 (Replace x by x 1 / n )
(iv) k, k ax 2  kbx  k 2 c  0 (Replace x by x/k)
(v) k   , k    a( x  k ) 2  b ( x  k )  c  0 (Replace x by (x – k))
 
(vi) ,  k 2 ax 2  kbx  c  0 (Replace x by kx)
k k
(vii)  1 / n ,  1 / n ; n N a( x n ) 2  b( x n )  c  0 (Replace x by x n )

(4) Symmetric expressions:The symmetric expressions of the roots ,  of an equation are

those expressions in  and , which do not change by interchanging  and . To find the value
of such an expression, we generally express that in terms of    and.
Some examples of symmetric expressions are:
(i)  2   2

(ii)  2     2

1 1
(iii) 
 

 
(iv) 
 
(v)  2    2

2 2
  
(vi)     
   
(vii)  3   3

(viii)  4   4