How can you tell when a quadratic equation has no real solutions?

when the radicand is negative

when b in the quadratic formula is greater than the radicand

when the radicand equals zero

when the radicand is not a perfect square

Question

How can you tell when a quadratic equation has no real solutions? 

 when the radicand is negative 

 when b in the quadratic formula is greater than the radicand 

 when the radicand equals zero 

 when the radicand is not a perfect square

anonymous · Answer

The term 'radicand' does not sound very formal, I would call it the determinant or something else, but if nothing else is given, then I would go with the first one.

nurali · Answer

When the radicand is negative then you know the equation has no real solutions. This is because you CAN'T find the square root of a negative number. If the radicand is a perfect square it will have 2 rational solutions (rational because they terminate) If it is NOT a perfect square it will have 2 irrational solutions(irrational because they do NOT terminate) Lastly, if the radicand is zero, then ther is only one solution...zero.