Question

Can someone help me with this? I need to Find the minimum y-value on a graph of y=f(x)
F(x)=x^2+8x-1
What is the minimum y-value? Y=

Answer 1

What's the chance you are up on how to "Complete the Square"?

Answer 2

eh...it confuses the hell outta me

Answer 3

What class are you looking at this question in? Are you in calculus and familiar with solving extrema problems by taking derivatives?

Answer 4

You don't need any of that , anyway.

How about -b/(2a)? Ever seen that?

Answer 5

its algebra
yes I have seen that

Answer 6

Yikes! I hope you're not in calculus. You better have better algebra before you do that! Completing the Square is important.

Answer 7

I only have 2 more weeks left of this. I am a human services major, not math - I hate math (and it hates me as well)

Answer 8

Oh, perfect. Then we just happen to know that the minimum or maximum value of a parabola is a x = -b/(2a).

We have a = 1 and b = 8. Simple as that. Evaluation the function at the resulting value and you'll be done.

Answer 9

so it is just turned into a different equation replacing the a and b?

Answer 10

It's a standard form. \(ax^{2} + bx + c\) Whatever numbers appear, those are their assignments.

Answer 11

Where are we? Did you get x = -8/(2*1) = -8/2 = -4?

Let's find f(-4) and we'll be done.