Math help please

[msn]

I'm not really sure where I should be posting this but hopefully someone here can help me.

I don't really have anyone I can talk to about my math so if anyone who knows what they're doing and don't mind the occasional math question could please add me on msn or skype I would be so thankful.

Anyway here's the question:



Please try and explain how you got the answer.

Thanks for the help all

[Haxalot]

For this, you are looking for the Quadratic Formula or Completing The Square. This is because we are unable to factorise the given equation above. Lets use the former way mentioned because it is really just using a set formula and replacing the letters with numbers (less chance of human error).

Here is the quadratic formula:


So now we take the letters A, B and C and give them the values 2, 6 and 11 respectively.
One quick thing to note is what a rational number is; A rational number is a number that can be written as a simple fraction.


Now just replace those numbers into the formula and we get:


With:
A = -1.5
B = 0.25
C = -52