Video · + 1 min read
(Video) How to Solve by Completing the Square
by Brian McLogan
In this video by Brian McLogan it is shown how to complete the square.
The first example he looks at is:
To complete the square, you first want to isolate your variables. Notice in the equation, the 's are on one side and the constant, , is on the other.
The goal is to turn the side into a squared binomial. This means we turn it into something like . To do this, we need to add an extra term to the side.
To do this, we take the middle coefficient, in this case it's the in , and halve it, square it, then add it.
Since our coefficient is , we first halve it. Then square it. And finally add it. This means we add it to both sides of the equation.
We just created a perfect square trinomial! This means it can be easily factored into the form we wanted, .
Now, we can take the square root of both sides. Be careful though, we need the positive and negative version of the right hand side.
This simplifies to:
Thus, we get two solutions.
Which expression equals




















