The Student Room Group

Reply 1

The roots must be positive because you are doing the quadratic equation to find t^2 which has to be positive,

So 6 - root(36 + 4k) > 0 must hold meaning that k < 0 if you rearrange

Reply 2

Original post by grhas98
The roots must be positive because you are doing the quadratic equation to find t^2 which has to be positive,

So 6 - root(36 + 4k) > 0 must hold meaning that k < 0 if you rearrange


Thanks so much! But where do they get 6-root(36+4k) from?

Reply 3

Original post by Nithu05
Thanks so much! But where do they get 6-root(36+4k) from?


Last line of the frist part, so solving the quadratic
x^2 - 6x - k = 0
The bold is (double) the smallest root which must be positive.

Reply 4

Original post by mqb2766
Last line of the frist part, so solving the quadratic
x^2 - 6x - k = 0
The bold is (double) the smallest root which must be positive.


Just to confirm they used the quadratic formula and set the numerator>0. Is the reason they didn't use the 6+root36+4k because it is already positive as established by the fact that k>-9?
(edited 2 years ago)

Reply 5

Original post by Nithu05
Just to confirm they used the quadratic formula and set the numerator>0. Is the reason they didn't use the 6+root36+4k because it is already positive as established by the fact that k>-9?


The previous root is the smallest one. If thats postiive, then so must be this one
... + sqrt(...)
which is greater than it.
(edited 2 years ago)