Question

Quadratic Formula: I started working on the MIT 6.189 course and am stuck on Exercise 2.5 where I'm asked to calculate the roots of a quadratic equation. My question is if we will be inputting an equation to first check that it is indeed a quadratic equation and then proceed to calculate its roots or if this question already assumes that this has been confirmed and we will only be entering the equation's coefficients. If the former, what would the three arguments/parameters be? thanks!

Answer 1

It asks the user to input a quadratic as three inputs. In your question, you answered what the three inputs needed are. The three coefficients of the powers when the quadratic is in the form of: \(ax^2+bx^1+cx^0\). You just need a, b, and c.

Answer 2

from math import sqrt
a=1
b=2
c=1

d=(b**2)-(4*(a*c))

if (d<0):
print("there are no real solutions")
if(d==0):
print("the solution is x =",-b/(2*a))
if(d>0):
print("there are two solutions")
print("the first solution is x =",(-b+sqrt(d))/(2*a))
print("the second solution is x =",(-b-sqrt(d))/(2*a))