Solve Using the Quadratic Formula x^2-5x+2=0

$x^{2} - 5 x + 2 = 0$

Step 1

Use the quadratic formula to find the solutions.

$\frac{- b \pm \sqrt{b^{2} - 4 (a c)}}{2 a}$

Step 2

Substitute the values $a = 1$ , $b = - 5$ , and $c = 2$ into the quadratic formula and solve for $x$ .

$\frac{5 \pm \sqrt{{(- 5)}^{2} - 4 \cdot (1 \cdot 2)}}{2 \cdot 1}$

Step 3

Simplify.

Simplify the numerator.

Raise $- 5$ to the power of $2$ .

$x = \frac{5 \pm \sqrt{25 - 4 \cdot 1 \cdot 2}}{2 \cdot 1}$

Multiply $- 4 \cdot 1 \cdot 2$ .

Multiply $- 4$ by $1$ .

$x = \frac{5 \pm \sqrt{25 - 4 \cdot 2}}{2 \cdot 1}$

Multiply $- 4$ by $2$ .

$x = \frac{5 \pm \sqrt{25 - 8}}{2 \cdot 1}$

Subtract $8$ from $25$ .

$x = \frac{5 \pm \sqrt{17}}{2 \cdot 1}$

Multiply $2$ by $1$ .

$x = \frac{5 \pm \sqrt{17}}{2}$

Step 4

The result can be shown in multiple forms.

Exact Form:

$x = \frac{5 \pm \sqrt{17}}{2}$

Decimal Form:

$x = 4.56155281 \dots, 0.43844718 \dots$