Answer:
x = 5 and x = -19
Step-by-step explanation:
You're on the right track. It's the "discriminant" that tells you what you want to know here. Before starting, arrange the terms of your quadratic in descending orders of x: 5x^2 + 14x - 19 = 0 (Note that I assumed you meant 14x instead of just 14).
Then the coefficients of this quadratic are a = 5, b = 14 and c = -19.
You are referring to the "quadratic formula." It states this:
-b ± √(b²-4ac)
x = -----------------------
2a
So, we insert the a, b and c values as indicated above:
-14 ± √( 14² - 4[5][-19] ) -14 ± √(196 - 4[5][-19] ) -14 ± √576
x = ----------------------------------- = ---------------------------------- = ----------------------
2(10) 20 20
This comes out to:
x = (-14 + 24) / 2 and x = (-14 - 24) / 2
or:
x = 5 and x = -19
