In the getting started pdf it gives two practice exercises to do to get you acquainted with IDLE. Here is the quote: "Exercise
(this is just for practice, solutions will not be graded or collected in class)
Use IDLE to calculate:
1.
23.0 to the 5th power
2.
Positive root of the following equation:
34*x^2 + 68*x - 510
Recall:
a*x^2 + b*x + c
x1 = ( - b + sqrt ( b*b - 4*a*c ) ) / ( 2*a)
the first one of course went fine but I'm lost on the second one. googled positive root fwiw but that did not help with this situation. help me?

Question

In the getting started pdf it gives two practice exercises to do to get you acquainted with IDLE. Here is the quote: "Exercise
(this is just for practice, solutions will not be graded or collected in class)
Use IDLE to calculate:
1.
23.0 to the 5th power
2.
Positive root of the following equation:
34*x^2 + 68*x - 510
Recall:
a*x^2 + b*x + c
x1 = ( - b + sqrt ( b*b - 4*a*c ) ) / ( 2*a)
the first one of course went fine but I'm lost on the second one.  googled positive root fwiw but that did not help with this situation.  help me?

anonymous · Answer

if I type the first line into python (lol?) it says syntax error.  also, I don't know what is meant by "recall".  also what does "x1" on the last line mean?  thank you very much! :)

anonymous · Answer

x1 is a variable 23 ** 5 or pow(23, 5) http://docs.python.org/library/stdtypes.html#numeric-types-int-float-long-complex number two wants you to find the positive root of the equation that is given and it is asking you to recall the qudratic formula used to find the roots of an equation: this is algebra.

anonymous · Answer

to find sqrt(b*b-4*a*c) in the quadratic equation, you'll need to "import math" and use the math.sqrt() function. I was stuck on that for a couple of hours before Google saved me lol

anonymous · Answer

light bulbs goin off like crazy over here!!!  so exciting and fun! you guys RULE!!!  :) thanks