Solving Quadratic Inequalities

Quadratic
A Quadratic Equation (in Standard Form) looks like:

A Quadratic Equation in Standard Form

(a, b, and c can have any value, except that a can't be 0.)
That is an equation (=) but sometimes we need to solve inequalities like these:
Symbol

Words

Example

>
<

greater than

x2 + 3x > 2

less than

7x2 < 28

greater than or equal to

5 x2 x

less than or equal to

2y2 + 1 7y

Solving
Solving inequalities is very like solving equations ... we do most of the same things.

When solving equations we try to find points,

such as the ones marked "=0"

But when we solve inequalities we try to find interval(s),

such as the one marked "<0"
So this is what we do:

find the "=0" points

in between the "=0" points, are intervals that are either

greater than zero (>0), or

less than zero (<0)

then pick a test value to find out which it is (>0 or <0)
Here is an example:

Example: x2 x 6 < 0
x2 x 6 has these simple factors (because I wanted to make it easy!):

(x+2)(x3) < 0

Firstly, let us find where it is equal to zero:

(x+2)(x3) = 0

It is equal to zero when x

= 2 or x = +3

because when x = 2, then (x+2) is zero

and when x = +3, then (x3) is zero

So between 2 and +3, the function will either be

always greater than zero, or

always less than zero

We don't know which ... yet!

Let's pick a value in-between and test it:

At x=0: x2 x 6 = 0 0 6
= 6

So between 2 and +3, the function is less than zero.

And that is the region we want, so...

x2 x 6 < 0 in the interval (2, 3)

Note: x2 x 6 > 0 on the interval (,2) and (3, +)

And here is the plot of x2 x 6:

The equation equals zero at 2 and 3

The inequality "<0" is true between 2 and

3.

What If It Doesn't Go Through Zero?

Here is the plot of x2 x + 1

There are no "=0" points!

But that makes things easier!

Because the line does not cross through y=0, it must be either:

always > 0, or

always < 0

So all we have to do is test one value (say x=0) to see if it is above or below.

A "Real World" Example

A stuntman will jump off a 20 m building.
A high-speed camera is ready to film him between 15 m and 10 m above the
ground.

When should the camera film him?

We can use this formula for distance and time:

d = 20 5t2

d = distance above ground (m), and

t = time from jump (seconds)

(Note: if you are curious about the formula, it is simplified from d = d0 + v0t + a0t2 ,
where d0=20, v0=0, and a0=9.81, the acceleration due to gravity.)
OK, let's go.

First, let us sketch the question:

The distance we want is from 10 m to 15 m:

10 < d < 15
And we know the formula for d:

10 < 20 5t2 < 15

Now let's solve it!

First, let's subtract 20 from both sides:

10 < 5t2 <5

Now multiply both sides by (1/5). But because we are multiplying by a negative number,
the inequalities will change direction ... read Solving Inequalities to see why.

2 > t2 > 1

To be neat, the smaller number should be on the left, and the larger on the right. So let's
swap them over (and make sure the inequalities still point correctly):

1 < t2 < 2

Lastly, we can safely take square roots, since all values are greater then zero:

1 < t < 2
We can tell the film crew:

"Film from 1.0 to 1.4 seconds after jumping"

Higher Than Quadratic

The same ideas can help us solve more complicated inequalities:

Example: x3 + 4 3x2 + x
First, let's put it in standard form:

x3 3x2 x + 4 0
3

This is a cubic equation (the highest exponent is a cube, i.e. x ), and is hard to solve, so
let us graph it instead:

The zero points are approximately:

1.1

1.3

2.9

And from the graph we can see the intervals where it is greater than (or equal to) zero:

From 1.1 to 1.3, and

From 2.9 on

In interval notation we can write:

Approximately:

[1.1, 1.3] U [2.9, +)