How do you find the vertex and intercepts for y=x24x+9?

1 Answer
Jun 15, 2018

vertex: (2, 5)

x-intercept: none

y-intercept: (0, 9)

Explanation:

y=x24x+9

The equation is a quadratic equation in standard form, or y=ax2+bx+c.

The vertex is the minimum or maximum point of a parabola . To find the x value of the vertex, we use the formula xv=b2a, where xv is the x-value of the vertex.

We know that a=1 and b=4, so we can plug them into the formula:
xv=(4)2(1)=42=2

To find the y-value, we just plug in the x value back into the equation:
y=(2)24(2)+9

Simplify:
y=48+9

y=4+9

y=5

Therefore, the vertex is at (2,5)

Now to find the intercepts.

The x-intercept is the value of x when y equals to zero.

To find it, just plug in 0 for y in the equation:
0=x24x+9

Since we cannot factor x24x+9, we will use the quadratic formula x=b±b24ac2a

We already know that a=1, b=4, and c=9, so let's plug them into the formula:
x=(4)±(4)24(1)(9)2(1)

Now simplify:
x=4±16362

x=4±202

Since we cannot do a square root of a negative number (it becomes imaginary), that means there are no x-intercepts .

The y-intercept is the value of y when x equals to zero.

To find it, just plug in 0 for all the x's in the equation:
y=(0)24(0)+9

Simplify:
y=00+9

y=9

Now we write it as a coordinate, so it becomes (0,9).

In summary,

vertex: (2, 5)

x-intercept: none

y-intercept: (0, 9)

Here is a graph of this quadratic equation:
enter image source here

(desmos.com)

As you can see, there is no x-intercept, and the vertex and y-intercept are shown there.

For another explanation/example of finding the vertex and intercepts of a standard equation, feel free to watch this video:

Hope this helps!