Find Coefficients in y = 6x - 6x² + 3: Identifying a, b, and c

Question

What are the values of the coefficients a, b, and c in the quadratic function below?

y=6x−6x2+3

Video Solution

Solution Steps

00:00 Find the function coefficients
00:03 We'll use the formula to represent a quadratic equation
00:13 We'll arrange the equation according to the formula
00:41 We'll separate the unknown from the coefficient
00:51 We'll compare the formula to our equation and find the coefficients:
00:59 And this is the solution to the question

Step-by-Step Solution

Let's recall the general form of a quadratic function:

y=ax2+bx+c y=ax^2+bx+c

Let's examine the given function in the problem:

y=6x6x2+3 y=6x-6x^2+3

Note that in the general form of the quadratic function mentioned above, the terms are arranged from the highest power (which is the quadratic term - power of 2) to the lowest power (which is the free term - power of 0),

Therefore, to make it easier to identify the coefficients, we'll use the commutative property of addition and rearrange the terms of the quadratic function so they are written from highest to lowest power:

y=6x6x2+3y=6x2+6x+3 y=6x-6x^2+3 \\ y=-6x^2+6x+3

We can then identify that the coefficient of the quadratic term, meaning the coefficient of the term with power two: a a is 6 -6 We'll continue and identify that the coefficient of the term with power one: b b is 6 6 and finally we'll identify that the coefficient of the term with power 0, meaning the free term: c c is 3 3

To summarize, the coefficients in the given function are:

a=6,b=6,c=3 a=-6,\hspace{4pt}b=6,\hspace{4pt}c=3

Therefore, the correct answer is answer A.

Note:

The coefficient c c is the free term - and we said before that it's the coefficient of the term with power zero - x0 x^0 this is because any number different from zero raised to the power of zero equals 1:

x0=1 x^0=1 , and therefore we could write the general form of the function above as:

y=ax2+bx+cy=ax2+bx+c1y=ax2+bx1+cx0 y=ax^2+bx+c \\ \downarrow\\ y=ax^2+bx+c\cdot1 \\ \downarrow\\ y=ax^2+bx^1+c x^0

meaning, c c is the coefficient of the term with power 0.

Answer

a=6,b=6,c=3 a=-6,b=6,c=3