A new way to make quadratic equations easy
This is bizarre. It’s no less a mathematical trick than completing the square, and it doesn’t seem to be any simpler to use.<p>The example given is to find the roots of x² - 2x + 4 = 0.<p>Completing the square gives (x - 1)² + 3 = 0, from which you can immediately see that the roots are 1 ± √3 i. If anything this seems <i>easier</i> than the method of the article.<p>Am I missing something?<p><i></i>Added<i></i>: The argument seems to be that young students will find this method easier to understand than completing the square. I have no experience of teaching mathematics to children, so this may be true for all I know. It would be interesting to test this hypothesis experimentally, because I don’t think it’s <i>obviously</i> true.