How do you solve 2p^2 - 3p -2 = 0?

1 Answer
Mar 7, 2018

See a solution process below:

Explanation:

We can use the quadratic equation to solve this problem:

The quadratic formula states:

For color(red)(a)x^2 + color(blue)(b)x + color(green)(c) = 0, the values of x which are the solutions to the equation are given by:

x = (-color(blue)(b) +- sqrt(color(blue)(b)^2 - (4color(red)(a)color(green)(c))))/(2 * color(red)(a))

Substituting:

color(red)(2) for color(red)(a)

color(blue)(-3) for color(blue)(b)

color(green)(-2) for color(green)(c) gives:

p = (-color(blue)(-3) +- sqrt(color(blue)(-3)^2 - (4 * color(red)(2) * color(green)(-2))))/(2 * color(red)(2))

p = (color(blue)(3) +- sqrt(9 - (-16)))/4

p = (color(blue)(3) +- sqrt(9 + 16))/4

p = (color(blue)(3) +- sqrt(25))/4

p = (color(blue)(3) - 5)/4; p = (color(blue)(3) + 5)/4

p = -2/4; p = 8/4

p = -1/2; p = 2