Sum and Product of Roots Help! (1 Viewer)

[alussovsky]

Hi! So I'm having trouble with this question from Cambridge X1 Year 12:

If α and β are roots of the equation 2x² + 5x - 4 = 0, find |α - β|

Thank you!

 

[jetn1234]

Use the definition of absolute values, so you would get |α - β|= sqrt ((α-β)^2) and you should be able to do it from there.

 

[fan96]

You can think of as the difference in magnitude between the two roots.

Using the quadratic formula,



Subtract either root from the other and discard the sign to get:

 

[HeroWise]