We can make a plot of a quadratic equation by plotting
For example let’s work out the value of y for values of from -3 to 3 in a quadratic equation.
Let’s set the values of ,
and
to
,
and
so that
-3 | 9 |
-2 | 4 |
-1 | 1 |
0 | 0 |
1 | 1 |
2 | 4 |
3 | 9 |
When we plot all of these points and draw lines between them, we get this graph
We can get a more accurate graph by plotting more points. If we add in plus and minus 0.5 and 0.25 we would have the following points to plot.
-3 | 9 |
-2 | 4 |
-1 | 1 |
-0.5 | 0.25 |
-0.25 | 0.0625 |
0 | 0 |
0.25 | 0.0625 |
0.5 | 0.25 |
1 | 1 |
2 | 4 |
3 | 9 |
The plot looks more curved now. Less jaggedly.
Using software, we can plot all of the points for a smooth curve
Notice that when ,
.
is the solution to