Skip to main content
OlympiadHQ

Browse · MATH

Print

jmc

algebra intermediate

Problem

Give an example of a quadratic function that has zeroes at and , and that takes the value when .

Enter your answer in the expanded form "ax^2 + bx + c", where a,b,c are replaced by appropriate numbers.
Solution
An example of a quadratic function with zeroes at and is . However, when , this function takes the value . However, multiplying the entire quadratic by does not change the location of the zeroes, and does give us the desired value at .

Thus, has all the desired properties. The expanded form of this expression is .

Note that this is the only such quadratic. Any quadratic must factor as , where its zeroes are and ; thus a quadratic with zeroes at and must be of the form , and the coefficient is forced by the value at .
Final answer
-6x^2+36x-48