Comprehensive Oxford Mathematics and Physics Online School (COMPOS)

Year 10

Mathematics Assignment 01
The Quadratic Function
Vladimir Chernov, Alexander Lvovsky

Due 10th October, 2024

This is the first Mathematics assignment from COMPOS for Y10. The assignment goes into the topic
in more detail than you have done in school. There are links to online videos which we encourage you
to watch. You are free to do your own reading around this topic also.

This assignment is designed to stretch you and no student is expected to complete all questions on the
first attempt. Some of the problems are hard, but do not let this discourage you. Give each problem a
go, and skip to the next one if you are stuck. The questions in each section are arranged in the order
of increasing complexity, so you should try all sections. Harder problems are labelled * or **.

Very similar problems will be discussed in the webinars so think of the questions you would like to ask.
We hope that eventually you will be able to solve most of the problems. Good luck!

To successfully complete this assignment you will need to be familiar with the following formulae:

• Difference of two squares formula:

a2 − b2 = (a − b)(a + b) (1)

• Square of a sum formula:

(a + b)2 = a2 + 2ab + b2 (2)

• Square of a difference formula:

(a − b)2 = a2 − 2ab + b2 (3)

An explanation can be found in this Khan Academy web page.

Total 65 marks.

1 Solving quadratic equations

The goal of this assignment is to introduce the concepts of function and quadratic function. To understand
these, we will first consider quadratic equations. We will start with intuitive equations that can be solved
by inspection.

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1.1 Solving by inspection

Example 1. Solve x2 = 9.

Solution: You probably already found a solution: x = 3, however to solve an equation means to find all
solutions or show that there are none. So after a more careful consideration you will find that this equation
is also true when x = −3. Answer: x = ±3.

Solutions to equations are called roots. For example, the roots of the equation x2 = 9 are ±3.

In the above example we could have a different expression instead of x.

Example 2. Solve (2x − 7)2 = 9.

Solution: Here we have (2x − 7) instead of x. You can read it as “something squared is 9”. This “something”
must be 3 or −3. So now instead of x = ±3 we have 2x − 7 = ±3, which is actually just 2 linear equations:
2x − 7 = 3 and 2x − 7 = −3 which are easy to solve. Answer: x1 = 5; x2 = 2.

Problem 1 (5 marks). Solve equations:

a) x2 = 36; b) x2 = 13; c) (x − 3)2 = 9;

d) (x + 2)2 = 11; e)∗ (4x − 7)2 = (5x + 13)2 .

Another intuitive example of a quadratic equation is

Example 3. Solve x2 = 5x.

Solution: We are tempted to divide both sides of the equation by x, which leads us to a root x = 5. But by
doing so, we must be careful not to divide by zero. Indeed, we can see that x = 0 is also a valid root, and
“lost” it by dividing by x thoughtlessly. Answer: x1 = 5; x2 = 0.

When dividing both sides of an equation by an expression, always check if this expression can be zero.

As before, in the above example we could have a different expression instead of x.

Example 4. Solve (3x + 2)2 = 5(3x + 2).

Solution: Here we have (3x + 2) instead of x. You can read it as “something squared is 5 times that
something”. From the previous example we know that this “something” must be either 0 or 5. So now we
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have 3x + 2 = 0 and 3x + 2 = 5. Solving these two linear equations we get the Answer: x1 = − ; x2 = 1.
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Problem 2 (8 marks). Solve equations:

a) x2 = 2x; b) (x + 7)2 = x + 7; c) (x − 8)2 = 17(x − 8);

d) 7 − 5x = (5x − 7)2 ; e) 7(x − 2)2 = 6x − 12;

f) (9 − 4x)(x + 5) = 5(x + 5); g) (5 − 3x)(7x − 4) = (7x − 4)2 ;

h)∗ (11x − 2)2 − (7x + 4)2 = 0.

Problem 3∗ (3 marks).

a) Solve the equation x2 + y 2 = 0;

b) Hence, solve the equation (x2 − 9)2 + (6x − 2x2 )2 = 0.

1.2 Solving by factorisation

A quadratic equation is an equation of the form

ax2 + bx + c = 0, (4)

where a, b, c are real numbers.1 We shall assume that a ̸= 0 — otherwise such an equation would not be
quadratic. The left-hand side of a quadratic equation — the expression ax2 + bx + c — is called a quadratic
polynomial.

Let us first assume that a = 1, so the expression takes the form x2 + bx + c. A useful technique of that helps
guessing the solution of a quadratic equation is factorising its left-hand side — that is, presenting it as a
product of binomials

x2 + bx + c = (x + p)(x + q). (5)

Example 5. Factorise x2 − 13x + 30.

Solution: As discussed in the video, we need to find two numbers that add to −13 and multiply to 30. The
numbers are −3 and −10. Answer: x2 − 13x + 30 = (x − 3)(x − 10).

This is how you were (most likely) taught in school, however the values of p and q have very specific meanings
— they are opposite to the roots of the equation, i.e. p = −x1 and q = −x2 . So from now on we will be
writing the factorisation in the form

x2 + bx + c = (x − x1 )(x − x2 ), (6)
1 This is often written as a, b, c ∈ R. R is the set of real numbers, you can watch this Nerdstudy video for more information.

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where x1 and x2 are the roots of the polynomial: if x equals either one of these numbers, the expression (6)
becomes zero.

Suppose, for example, that we are given the quadratic equation x2 − 3x + 2 = 0. Because we can write
x2 − 3x + 2 = (x − 1)(x − 2), the roots are x1 = 1 and x2 = 2.

But how can we factorise a quadratic polynomial? Let us make a transformation

(x − x1 )(x − x2 ) = x2 − (x1 + x2 )x + x1 x2 . (7)

Comparing this with Equation (6), we see that

x1 x2 = c; x1 + x2 = −b (8)

(the above equalities are called Vieta’s formulae). That is, we need to guess two numbers that add up to
−b and whose product is c.

In the above example, we have x1 x2 = 2 = c and x1 + x2 = 3 = −b.

Example 6. Factorise x2 − 3x − 88 using Vieta’s formulae.

Solution: We need to find two roots x1 and x2 that add to 3 and multiply to −88:

x1 × x2 = −88
x1 + x2 = 3

The roots are x1 = −8 and x2 = 11.

Using formula (6) we get

Answer: x2 − 3x − 88 = (x + 8)(x − 11).

Example 7. Solve using Vieta’s formulae: x2 + 9x + 14 = 0.

Solution: We need to find two roots that add to −9 and multiply to 14:

x1 × x2 = 14
x1 + x2 = −9

These are x1 = −2 and x2 = −7.

Answer: −2; −7.

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Problem 4 (4 marks).

a) Find the roots, and hence factorise the expressions:

i) x2 − 8x + 15; ii) x2 − 8x − 33; iii) x2 − 102x − 999.

b) Write down the solutions to each equation:

i) x2 − 8x + 15 = 0; ii) x2 − 8x − 33 = 0; iii) x2 − 102x − 999 = 0.

Sanity check

Whenever you solve a problem, you should think simple tests to see if your result makes sense. With
equations, this is easy: you substitute the roots you found into the equation and check if the equality
holds. In example (7) you have x1 = −2 and x2 = −7, substituting these into the original equation:

x21 + 9x1 + 14 = (−2)2 + 9 × (−2) + 14 = 4 − 18 + 14 = 0;

x22 + 9x2 + 14 = (−7)2 + 9 × (−7) + 14 = 49 − 63 + 14 = 0.

You are not required to submit the sanity check as a part of your assignment, but you should always
do it on your own. Otherwise you may end up submitting a solution with a silly mistake, which could
easily be avoided.

Express sanity check

Doing a full sanity check as above can be time consuming, so you can use a quicker test: x1 × x2 = c.
So in example (7): x1 × x2 = (−2) × (−7) = 14 which is the same as the value of c1 .
1 Note c
that if a ̸= 1 the product becomes x1 × x2 = .
a

Example 8. Write down a quadratic equation with roots −3 and 5.

Solution. Vieta’s formulae take the form c = x1 x2 = −3 × 5 = 15 and −b = x1 + x2 = −3 + 5 = 2.

Answer: x2 − 2x − 15 = 0

Problem 5 (3 marks). Write down a quadratic equation with roots:

√ √
a) 5 and −2; b) −3 and 3; c)∗ 2 − 5 and 2 + 5

Importantly, not every quadratic polynomial can be factorised — that is, not every quadratic equation has
solutions. For example, the equation x2 + 1 = 0 has no roots. In the next section we will learn how to find
out how many roots a given quadratic equation has.

Problem 6 (2 marks). Find b and x2 , if x2 + bx − 10 = 0 and x1 = 5.

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Example 9.

a) Factorise x4 − 5x2 + 4;

b) solve x4 − 5x2 + 4 = 0.

Solution:

a) Note that if we substitute u = x2 , the expression becomes u2 − 5u + 4, which can be factorised into
u − 5u + 4 = (u − 1)(u − 4). Substituting x2 back into the expression and applying the difference of two
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squares formula: x4 − 5x2 + 4 = (x2 − 1)(x2 − 4) = (x − 1)(x + 1)(x − 2)(x + 2).

b) (x − 1)(x + 1)(x − 2)(x + 2) = 0. A product is zero if one of the factors is zero. Hence, we have

(x − 1) = 0 or (x + 1) = 0 or (x − 2) = 0 or (x + 2) = 0

Which gives the following roots:

x1 = 1, x2 = −1, x3 = 2, x4 = −2.

Problem 7 (4 marks). Solve the equations:

a) (PAT2 2009) x4 − 13x2 + 36 = 0; b) x4 − 9x2 − 112=0; c)∗ (x + 5)4 − 9(x + 5)2 + 18 = 0.

More generally, as can be seen by inspection, the equation of the form

(x − x1 ) × (x − x2 ) × . . . × (x − xn ) = 0
has (only) the roots x1 , x2 , . . . , xn . This fact is often handy in solving problems.

What to do if we have a quadratic equation with a ̸= 1? the simplest approach is to rewrite the equation in
the form
b c
x2 + x + = 0. (9)
a a

Example 10. Find the roots of the equation 2x2 − 3x − 2 = 0 and hence factorise its left-hand side.

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Solution: We divide both sides by 2, obtaining x2 − x − 1 = 0, and use Vieta’s formulae to guess the roots:
2

x1 × x2 = −1
3
x1 + x2 = 2

1
the roots are x1 = 2, x2 = − . Hence we have
2
 
2 3 1
x − x − 1 = (x − 2) x + .
2 2
2 Oxford Physics undergraduate admissions test.

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However, the polynomial we need to factorise is twice the above polynomial. We can write
 
2 3 2 1
2x − 3x − 2 = 2(x − x − 1) = 2(x − 2) x + = (x − 2)(2x + 1).
2 2
   
1 1
Of course, we could also write the answer as (2x − 4) x + or leave it as 2(x − 2) x + .
2 2

Problem 8 (1 marks). Solve the equation 7x2 + 22x + 15 = 0 and factorise its left-hand side.

You can see a neat trick to guess the roots of a quadratic expression with a ̸= 1 in this Mr Chernov’s video.

Problem 9 (2 marks). Generalise Vieta’s formulae (8): What are the sum and the product of the two
roots of a quadratic equation (4) equal to if a ̸= 1?

More uses of Vieta’s formulae

Sometimes it is easy to guess one of the roots of the equation, then the second root can be found simply by
c
solving x1 × x2 = , as demonstrated in the following example.
a

Example 11. Solve 2023x2 − 1000x − 1023 = 0.

c
Solution: The equation clearly has a root x1 = 1. The second can be found by solving x1 × x2 = ⇒
a
−1023 1023
1 × x2 = ⇒ x2 = − .
2023 2023

Special case of Vieta’s

It follows from Vieta’s formulae and demonstrated in the above example, that in a quadratic equation
ax2 + bx + c = 0,

• if a + b + c = 0, then x1 = 1, x2 = ac ;

• if a − b + c = 0, then x1 = −1, x2 = − ac .

Example 12. Solve:

a) x2 − 7x + 6 = 0; b)13x2 + 25x + 12 = 0;

Solution:

a) Looking at the coefficients we notice that a + b + c = 1 + (−7) + 6 = 0,

c 6
so x1 = 1, x2 = = = 6.
a 1

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b) Similar to a), we notice that a − b + c = 13 − 25 + 12 = 0,

c 12
so x1 = −1, x2 = − =− .
a 13

1.3 Solving by completing the square

A complete square is a quadratic that can be expressed in the form (x ± a)2 , a ∈ R.

To complete a square means to separate a quadratic expression into a complete square and a constant.

For example,

x2 + 4x + 7 = x2 + 4x + 4 + 3 = (x + 2)2 + 3
(


quadratic complete constant
square

It is worth memorising the pattern of complete squares (these are obtained using equations (2) and (3)):

• (x ± 1)2 = x2 ± 2x + 1
• (x ± 2)2 = x2 ± 4x + 4 ← this formula was used in the example above

• (x ± 3)2 = x2 ± 6x + 9
• (x ± 4)2 = x2 ± 8x + 16
• (x ± 5)2 = x2 ± 10x + 25
• ...

Example 13. Solve x2 − 6x + 8 = 0 by completing the square.

Solution: Comparing the LHS expression with the 3rd equation from the pattern above, we can rewrite the
equation as
x2 − 6x + 9 − 1 = 0.
Note that it is the same equation, as 9 − 1 = 8. Hence,

(x − 3)2 − 1 = 0;

(x − 3)2 = 1.
Using Example 2 we can see that x − 3 = ±1. The equation has two solutions: 4 and 2.

Answer: x1 = 4, x2 = 2.

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Generally you can use the formula for completing the square:
2
b2

b
x2 + bx + c = x+ − + c. (10)
2 4

Please check this equality by applying the square of a sum formula (2) to its right-hand side.

Example 14. Solve 5x2 + 3x − 2 = 0 by completing the square.

Solution: We first divide both sides of the equation by 5 to have a = 1:

3 2
x2 + x − = 0
5 5
We can now apply formula (10) to the expression in square brackets (noting that b = 3/5, c = −2/5).
 2  2
3 2 3 9 2 3 49
x2 + x − = x+ − − = x+ − .
5 5 10 100 5 10 100

The equation becomes:

 2
3 49
x+ = .
10 100
Hence
3 7
x+ =± .
10 10

2
Answer: x1 = , x2 = −1.
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Problem 10 (6 marks). Solve the following quadratic equations by completing the square.

a) x2 + 8x + 7 = 0; b) x2 − 14x + 13 = 0;

c) 4x2 − 8x − 21 = 0; d) 11x2 + 13x − 24 = 0.

e) x2 − 4x = 0; f) x2 − 10x + 18 = 0.

Problem 11 (2 marks).

Show that formula (10) can be generalized to the case a ̸= 1 as follows:

2
b2

2 b
ax + bx + c = a x + − + c. (11)
2a 4a

Problem 12∗ (4 marks). Solve the following equation: (x − 3)4 − 2x2 + 12x − 81 = 0

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1.4 Solving using the discriminant formula

The solutions to a general quadratic equation are given by the well-known formula
√
−b ± b2 − 4ac
x= . (12)
2a
You can obtain it from Eq. (11). A derivation can also be found in this Khan Academy video.

Read about this method on Isaac Physics and review the example therein.

In Eq. (12), the quantity D = b2 − 4ac is known as the discriminant. It determines the number of roots of
the equation:

√ √
−b + D −b − D
• if D > 0, the quadratic equation has two distinct real roots x1 = and x2 = .
2a 2a
−b
• if D = 0, the quadratic equation has one distinct real root x1 = .
2a
• if D < 0, the quadratic equation has no real roots.

Please note that in school, when using the formula, you are normally asked to find the answer to 3 s.f.; in
this assignment please always give the exact answer, as shown in the following example:

Example 15. Find the exact roots of the equation x2 + 6x − 3 = 0.

Solution: Using the formula:

√ p √ √
−b ± b2 − 4ac −6 ± 62 − 4 × 1 × (−3) −6 ± 36 + 12 −6 ± 48
x= = = =
2a 2×1 2 2

This can be simplified:

√
−6 ± 4 3 √
x= = −3 ± 2 3
2

Note that the answer is given in exact (surd) form.

√ √
Answer: x1 = −3 + 2 3, x2 = −3 − 2 3.

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Problem 13 (5 marks). For the following quadratic equations:

1) find the discriminant and determine the number of real roots;

2) find the exact value of the roots.

a)x2 + 8x + 1 = 0; b) x2 − 3x − 13 = 0;

c) 5x2 − 3x + 7 = 0; d) 16x2 + 8x + 1 = 0.

e) 11x2 − 5x = 0;

Problem 14∗ (4 marks). Find all the values of q such that equation

a) qx2 − x + q = 0; b)qx2 − (q + 1)x + 2q − 1 = 0

has exactly one root.

2 The Quadratic Function

A numerical function or simply a function is a mapping where one set of numbers is mapped onto another.

Input Output
f (x)
x y

The function transforms x into y (we say y = f (x)). So the function is also a rule of transforming the input
x into the output y.

The set of all possible values of the input is called the Domain and the set of all possible outputs is called
the Range.

x1 • • y1
x2 • • y2
x3 • • y3
x4 • • y4
x5 • • y5
... • • ...

Domain X Range Y

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You can find more information on functions on this Khan Academy webpage.

The function in the form f (x) = ax2 + bx + c where a, b, c are real numbers and a ̸= 0 is known as the
quadratic function. The graph of y = f (x) is a parabola.

Please watch the videos on parabolas on this Khan Academy page. Some further information about quadratic
functions and parabolas can be found on the AMSI website.

y a>0 y a<0

axis of symmetry
vertex
•
y-intercept

axis of symmetry
•

y-intercept
b
− 2a
x • x
b
− 2a
•
vertex

Figure 1: Salient features of a parabola.

The main features of the parabola are as follows.

• The y-intercept is the point where the parabola crosses the y-axis, i.e. (0, f (0)) = (0, c),

• The x-intercepts are the points where the parabola crosses the x-axis. Their x-coordinates are the two
roots (12) of the equation ax2 + bx + c = 0.
• The vertex is the extremal (highest or lowest) point of the parabola. The x-coordinate of the vertex
can be found by looking at Eq. (11). The squared term in parenthesis is never less then zero, hence
b
the point x = − where it is zero is the x-coordinate of the vertex.
2a
• The parabola is symmetric about the vertical axis through the vertex. In particular, the x-coordinate
b x1 + x2
of the vertex is located in the middle between the two x-intercepts: − = . You can see this
2a 2
from the formula (12).

Example 16. Find a,b and c if M (−1, −7) is the vertex and N (0, −4) is the y-intercept of the parabola
y = ax2 + bx + c.

b
Solution: The x−coordinate of the vertex is −1, so − = −1 ⇒ b = 2a. (0, −4) is the y−intercept, so
2a
when x = 0, y is −4 ⇒ −4 = a × 02 + b × 0 + c ⇒ c = −4.

We also know that when x = −1, y is −7, so −7 = a × (−1)2 + 2a × (−1) − 4 ⇒ a = 3. Hence, b = 2a = 6.

Answer: y = 3x2 + 6x − 4, a = 3, b = 6, c = −4.

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Problem 15 (2 marks). Find the parameters a, b, c of the two parabolas in Fig. 1. Assume that the grid
step in the figure is 1.

Problem 16 (3 marks). Find the parameters a, b, c of the function f (x) = ax2 + bx + c if the graph
y = f (x) passes through the point B(−1, −6) and has a vertex at A(3, 2).

Problem 17 (modified PAT 2007, 3 marks). Sketch the curves y = x2 , y = (x − 3)2 and y = (x − 3)2 − 7
on the same set of axes.

Regular or decimal fractions?

Suppose you are given the equation 24x = 6. Should your answer be x = 1/4 or x = 0.25?

While the two numbers are formally identical, a decimal fraction traditionally implies limited precision
— that you don’t know the answer beyond the significant figures given. In maths problems, this is
usually not the case: the numbers are exact. To indicate this, you should use a regular fraction, writing
x = 1/4.

In physics, in contrast, numbers are not known precisely. Consider the question: A tortoise walked
6 meters in 24 seconds. What has been its speed? Even though this is seemingly the same problem,
you should answer “0.25 m/s”, to implicitly indicate the precision, with which the answer is known. In
theoretical equations and symbolic answers, however, you should still use regular fractions. For example,
1 1
you should write s = at2 rather than s = 0.5at2 — because here is an exact value.
2 2

Generally you should avoid mixing regular and decimal fractions. Answers should not contain decimals
under a square root.

Functions are widely used in physics.

Problem 18 (4 marks). An object is thrown upwards. The height above ground (in meters) can be
modelled by the function h(t) = 20 + 12t − 5t2 , where the time t is in seconds. Find:

a) the initial height above ground;

b) the maximum height reached by the object;

c) the times at which the object is 24 m above ground;

d) by finding the distance travelled in the first 0.1, 0.01, 0.001 seconds, work out the initial velocity.

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