Solve the Quadratic Equation: -x² + 13x - 14 = 0

Question

x2+13x14=0 -x^2+13x-14=0

What is the value of X?

Video Solution

Solution Steps

00:00 Find X
00:03 Divide by minus 1 to eliminate negatives
00:25 Use shortened multiplication formulas and pay attention to coefficients
00:30 We want to find 2 numbers
00:39 Their sum equals B and their product equals C
00:46 These are the suitable numbers
00:52 Therefore these are the numbers we'll put in parentheses
00:59 Find the solutions that zero each factor
01:05 Isolate X, this is the first solution
01:13 Isolate X, this is the second solution
01:22 And this is the solution to the problem

Step-by-Step Solution

Let's solve the given equation:

x2+13x+14=0 -x^2+13x+14=0

First, let's arrange the equation, making sure that the coefficient of the quadratic term is positive, we'll do this by multiplying both sides of the equation by (1) (-1) :

x2+13x+14=0/(1)x213x14=0 -x^2+13x+14=0 \hspace{6pt}\text{/}\cdot(-1) \\ x^2-13x-14=0

Now we notice that the coefficient of the quadratic term is 1, therefore, we can (try to) factor the expression on the left side using quick trinomial factoring:

We'll look for a pair of numbers whose product equals the free term in the expression, and whose sum equals the coefficient of the first-degree term, meaning two numbers m,n m,\hspace{2pt}n that satisfy:

mn=14m+n=13 m\cdot n=-14\\ m+n=-13\\ From the first requirement mentioned, that is - from the multiplication, we notice that the product of the numbers we're looking for needs to be negative, therefore we can conclude that the two numbers have different signs, according to multiplication rules, and now we'll remember that the possible factors of 14 are 2 and 7 or 14 and 1, fulfilling the second requirement mentioned, together with the fact that the signs of the numbers we're looking for are different from each other leads to the conclusion that the only possibility for the two numbers we're looking for is:

{m=14n=1 \begin{cases} m=-14\\ n=1 \end{cases}

Therefore we'll factor the expression on the left side of the equation to:

x213x14=0(x14)(x+1)=0 x^2-13x-14=0 \\ \downarrow\\ (x-14)(x+1)=0

From here we'll remember that the product of expressions equals 0 only if at least one of the multiplied expressions equals zero,

Therefore we'll get two simple equations and solve them by isolating the unknown in each:

x14=0x=14 x-14=0\\ \boxed{x=14}

or:

x+1=0x=1 x+1=0\\ \boxed{x=-1}

Let's summarize the solution of the equation:

x2+13x+14=0/(1)x213x14=0(x14)(x+1)=0x14=0x=14x+1=0x=1x=14,1 -x^2+13x+14=0 \hspace{6pt}\text{/}\cdot(-1) \\ x^2-13x-14=0\\ \downarrow\\ (x-14)(x+1)=0 \\ \downarrow\\ x-14=0\rightarrow\boxed{x=14}\\ x+1=0\rightarrow\boxed{x=-1}\\ \downarrow\\ \boxed{x=14,-1}

Therefore the correct answer is answer B.

Answer

x1=14,x2=1 x_1=14,x_2=-1