Author: Dr. McDonald

Completing the square is a method that will allow you to write a quadratic expression in the form \(a(x+b)^2+c\), where there is only one occurrence of the variable (inside a bracketed expression). In particular, completing the square will let you easily pass from the general form of a quadratic expression to the vertex form.

Watch the video below before Tuesday’s lesson, and we can discuss any questions you might have about this method (which should be review from last year) in class.

Here’s a nice example of the sort of question that you could solve using the Second Fundamental Theorem of Calculus.

Below is a GeoGebra applet that will let you investigate various transformations of the function \(y=x^2\).

You can access this file (and download the original file to your computer) here.