4 ms·

The reason there's little point in memorizing these formulas is that it's easier to use a computer. If you don't understand it anyways, why not just plug it int

• itazula 12y ago
  Solving it by hand gives an exact answer, which in some contexts, might be preferable. Forman Acton, in his classic book, Numerical Methods That Work, uses the quadratic formula as an example to illustrate how a computer can give a wildly incorrect solution.
  • gizmo686 12y ago
    Computer algebra systems can symbolicly solve quadratics precisly (think Mathematica).
    • arikrak 12y ago
      Right. Anything that a human can solve by following simple mechanical steps can be easily done by a computer. (See Turing's definition of computability.) Many people now are just following simple mechanical steps without understanding. They may as well use Mathematica or Wolfram|Alpha for such simple problems http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=12x%5E2%2B2x-30%3D0 http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=12x%5E2%2B2x-30%3D0 They should focus on learning how to convert real problems into a format Wolfram|Alpha can understand.
• tzs 12y ago
  Knowing the formula is important even if you are going to let a computer deal with actually computing roots from coefficients you give it, because you can look at the formula and get insight into how changes to the coefficients affect the roots. In real life applications, we are often not simply presented with coefficients and required to accept the consequences. The coefficients are often the parameters we get to control in order to achieve a desired outcome.