Type a quadratic in the form the question gives you and get the roots back. It also hands you the vertex and, where the numbers cooperate, the factored form.
By Sumarth Mehta. Original release page
How to install it
- Download the program with the button above. You'll get a .tns file, the file type TI-Nspire calculators use.
- Open nspireconnect.ti.com in Chrome on a computer or Chromebook, and plug your calculator in with its charging cable.
- Choose File Transfer, then To Calculator, then From Computer, and pick the .tns file you just downloaded.
- When it lands, the calculator shows a prompt. Choose Open to jump straight into it.
It sits in My Documents afterwards, so you can reopen it any time.
TI's web app only supports the CX II and CX II CAS. If you have an original CX, or you already use the TI-Nspire Student Software, sending the file through that works the same.
Running it
Open the document, go to its calculator page, and pass your equation to quadratic as text, in quotation marks: quadratic("x^2-5x+6=0").
It does not need rearranging first. The equation has to be quadratic, but it does not have to be in ax² + bx + c = 0 shape, so you can type what is in front of you rather than tidying it up and risking a sign on the way. Terms can sit on both sides of the equals sign, and if you leave the equals sign off it treats what you typed as equal to zero.
Three answers, not one
- The roots, which is what you usually came for. Imaginary ones show up too, as long as your calculator is not set to real-only mode.
- The vertex, which is the turning point of the parabola. Useful when the question is about a maximum or minimum rather than where the graph crosses.
- The factors, as a pair of binomials, when the quadratic factors cleanly. When it doesn't, you get the roots and that is the honest answer.
It works out the variable for you
Nothing here assumes x. The program picks up whichever letter you used, a through z, capitals, or theta. Projectile questions that arrive in t and geometry ones in x both go in exactly as written.