sat suite question viewer
The solutions to are and , where . The solutions to are and , where . The solutions to , where is a constant, are and . What is the value of ?
Explanation
The correct answer is . Subtracting from both sides of the equation yields . To complete the square, adding , or , to both sides of this equation yields , or . Taking the square root of both sides of this equation yields . Subtracting from both sides of this equation yields . Therefore, the solutions and to the equation are and . Since , it follows that and . Subtracting from both sides of the equation yields . To complete the square, adding , or , to both sides of this equation yields , or . Taking the square root of both sides of this equation yields , or . Subtracting from both sides of this equation yields . Therefore, the solutions and to the equation are and . Since , it follows that and . It's given that the solutions to , where is a constant, are and . It follows that this equation can be written as , which is equivalent to . Therefore, the value of is . Substituting for , for , for , and for in this equation yields , which is equivalent to , or , which is equivalent to , or . Therefore, the value of is .