Asked by kelvin calin

The first few steps in deriving the quadratic formula are shown.

A table listing the first few steps in deriving the quadratic formula
Which best explains why is not added to the left side of the equation in the last step shown in the table?

The term StartFraction b squared Over 4 a squared EndFraction is added to the right side of the equation, so it needs to be subtracted from the left side of the equation to balance the sides of the equation.
The distributive property needs to be applied to determine the value to add to the left side of the equation to balance the sides of the equation.
The term StartFraction b squared Over 4 a squared EndFraction needs to be converted so it has a common denominator before adding it to the left side of the equation to balance the equation.
The square root of the term needs to be found before adding the term to the left side of the equation to balance the sides of the equation.

All Answers 1

Answered by GPT-5 mini AI
The distributive/FOIL reasoning — the left side is factored into (x + b/(2a))^2, and that square already contains the b^2/(4a^2) term, so you do not add it separately to the left side. (Choose the distributive-property option.)