What is the positive solution to this equation?


4x2+12x = 135

Record your answer below.

1 answer

To solve the equation \(4x^2 + 12x = 135\), we first rearrange it into standard quadratic form:

\[ 4x^2 + 12x - 135 = 0 \]

Next, we can use the quadratic formula, which is given by:

\[ x = \frac{-b \pm \sqrt{b^2 - 4ac}}{2a} \]

In our equation, the coefficients are:

  • \(a = 4\)
  • \(b = 12\)
  • \(c = -135\)

Now, we calculate the discriminant \(b^2 - 4ac\):

\[ b^2 = 12^2 = 144 \] \[ 4ac = 4 \cdot 4 \cdot (-135) = -2160 \] \[ b^2 - 4ac = 144 + 2160 = 2304 \]

Now we substitute back into the quadratic formula:

\[ x = \frac{-12 \pm \sqrt{2304}}{2 \cdot 4} \]

Calculating \(\sqrt{2304}\):

\[ \sqrt{2304} = 48 \]

Now substituting that into the quadratic formula:

\[ x = \frac{-12 \pm 48}{8} \]

This gives us two solutions:

  1. Positive solution: \[ x = \frac{-12 + 48}{8} = \frac{36}{8} = 4.5 \]

  2. Negative solution: \[ x = \frac{-12 - 48}{8} = \frac{-60}{8} = -7.5 \]

The positive solution is:

\[ \boxed{4.5} \]