Anyone who is really passionate about maths?

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You left out x = 0

Is that it?!?!
I've solved it again doing the parentheses first and now I've got
x1=0
x2=5
x3=-9
But that only works for -4
I'm still doing something wrong!

Possibly. But Wolfram Alpha is probably more user-friendly for plotting.


Seems like you inserted another error ahead of the square root.

Bloody hell, Wolfram Alpha is fantastic!! !! !!
I can see everything! It makes so much more sense to me now!

Yes cracked it! Woho!! !!

It really doesn't matter if you divide the 4 by the 2 before squaring or not. It's always the same answer either way, as long as you square both the numerator and denominator. In this case (4/2)^2 = 16/4 = 4, which is the same as (4/2)^2 = 2^2 = 4. It's really the next line where she made the mistake. She seems to of multiplied the fraction by 2 instead of squaring it and then for some reason divided the 5 by 2. Otherwise she would of gotten the 9 underneath the square root.

Thank you for clarifying!

Please please please please tell me I did this one right!

[img][800:576]http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3768/9213120544_7a656a0f8f_b.jpg[/img]

That's right (aside from the typo in line 5).

I'm just a little surprised that your assignment covers complex numbers, because they're usually taught way later than quadratic equations.

Yay!! ! Weeee! I'm not hopeless The typo, do you mean the line in the square root not covering the entire problem? I tried fixing that but it just wouldn't.
Well we don't cover them we have just been told that they exist. I'm not sure really, I'm studying long distance and don't have any classes. We are given assignments to turn in and to help us do them a couple of pages of lecture notes. And of course we have a book. To be honest though I've just looked in the book three times because it doesn't explain anything it just contains problems. The lecture notes don't really tell me anything either they sort of assume that you get this stuff.

Well done. What grade are you in?

Thank you!

Well it's high school maths. I never went to highschool but I spent two years making that up as an adult and got a high school degree. However I want to study either engineering,architecture or maybe biomedecine so I need to study physics,chemistry and maths.
The maths I'm doing is two levels above the required maths to get a high school degree. Problem is that, as I've stated before, I dropped out around fifth grade as as child then I made that up with a year at school as an adult and then two years to get my high school degree.
The problem is that the schools I went to had bad maths teachers and I had no computer back then also there were no tests required to get a passing grade so I have the papers that say I've done the maths when really I haven't.
The school I'm going to now is much stricter.

You could just use the quadratic formula for that bad boy too, saves a lot of time.

A good thing about most engineering classes is that any math you need to know, you'll typically be taught there, at least briefly. You don't have to take too many pure math classes for engineering usually, but they can be a bit worse in that regard. The only thing that the math classes do that I hate is they often want you to memorize all of the trigonometric identities, as well as integral tables. You'll probably need a decent grasp of geometry/trigonometry also. But as long as you can handle algebra you should be able to handle all of that. And if you do feel that you are struggling with it, you can always go to your professor and ask them to help you learn some of the concepts you're expected to know (I had to do this in a math class after being out of school for some time)

If you have any questions about going for an engineering or biomed degree let me know, I have more experience than I'd sometimes care to admit lol.

To get a BA in engineering, I believe that the highest level of math one would need is Linear Algebra; so some of the courses required would be Algebra, Trigonometry, Pre-calculus, Calculus, Differential Equations, Linear Algebra, and Statistics at the Engineering level. You will not have to do any rigorous proofs, but there are a few in Linear Algebra, and identities and a few small proofs in the other courses. I can be wrong on this, since I am not an engineer, but a recovering math major (I was a math major and got a B.A., but had a nervous and mental breakdown from too much stress...long story).

Out of Biomedicine, Architecture, and Engineering, the path with the least amount of math I think is Archetecture, as one only needs Calculus 1, although some biology majors (depending on the school and perhaps the field of study), only require Calculus 1; some require Calculus 2.

Please understand Salome, that I can certainly be wrong on this, but as of 15 years ago, this was laid out for me by a counselor in college.

No matter what path you take, I hope the most success for you and that you end up happy doing what you love.

Stargazer! Thank you for your offer to tell me more about your studies I'm sure I will take you upon that some day.
Thank you both DHP and stargazer for telling me about the qualifications needed to study engineering. I'm not sure what it translates to here in Sweden. I know all the different qualifications needed to study what I want around here. If I want to study architecture then this maths clas is the one I need and one other subject. For engineering I would need to study another two levels of maths and chemistry andt two levels of physics. For biomedecine I would need two levels of biology,chemistry and physics and another level of maths.
I'm not sure which I'll pick but I need maths regardless so might as well study.

Can't say that I am passionate like a die hard fan. However I love to do it especially when it closely relates to technology. I'm a newbee HAM radio operator and it would benefit me if I had at least good pre calculus skills.