Solve the equation by graphing. if exact roots cannot be found, state the consecutive integers between which the roots are located. x^2 + 5x + 4 = 0

The equation contains exact roots at x = -4 and x = -1.

See attached image for the graph.

Step-by-step explanation:

We start by noticing that the expression on the left of the equal sign is a quadratic with leading term , which means that its graph shows branches going up. Therefore:

1) if its vertex is ON the x axis, there would be one solution (root) to the equation.

2) if its vertex is below the x-axis, it is forced to cross it at two locations, giving then two real solutions (roots) to the equation.

3) if its vertex is above the x-axis, it will not have real solutions (roots) but only non-real ones.

So we proceed to examine the vertex's location, which is also a great way to decide on which set of points to use in order to plot its graph efficiently:

We recall that the x-position of the vertex for a quadratic function of the form is given by the expression:

Since in our case and , we get that the x-position of the vertex is:

Now we can find the y-value of the vertex by evaluating this quadratic expression for x = -5/2:

This is a negative value, which points us to the case in which there must be two real solutions to the equation (two x-axis crossings of the parabola's branches).

We can now continue plotting different parabola's points, by selecting x-values to the right and to the left of the . Like for example x = -2 and x = -1 (moving towards the right) , and x = -3 and x = -4 (moving towards the left.

When evaluating the function at these points, we notice that two of them render zero (which indicates they are the actual roots of the equation):

The actual graph we can complete with this info is shown in the image attached, where the actual roots (x-axis crossings) are pictured in red.

Then, the two roots are: x = -1 and x = -4.

the answer to this is a. a^2 + b^2 = c^2