An Intuitive Method to Solve Quadratic Equations

Summary

This article provides an intuitive, simple and computationally efficient method to solve for general quadratic equations compared to the traditional completing the square method. The only basic knowledge required for this purpose is the factoring/distributive property. Therefore, students can learn how to solve quadratic equations at an earlier stage without the need to memorize a formula.

Notes

1 The knowledge of Vieta’s formulas is not required. Also, Loh’s method does not rely on the theorem that two roots (counting multiplicity) always exist.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Abdel Missa

Abdel Missa ([email protected]) is a professor of finance at Jacksonville University and advises the CFA research challenge team. His team finished runner-up in the 2018 Global Championship of the CFA research challenge out of 1,200+ universities. Abdel is also the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of MarketCipher Partners, an asset management firm. Abdel earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and a Master’s degree in engineering from Telecom Paris. He has a passion for Mathematics and has received an Honorable Mention at the 1994 Hong Kong International Math Olympiad.