Problem

19. Show that the equation $x^{2}-(2 a+b) x+a b=0$ has real roots for all values of $a$ and $b$

Answer

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Answer

Therefore, the equation \(x^2 - (2a + b)x + ab = 0\) has real roots for all values of \(a\) and \(b\).

Steps

Step 1 :Given the equation \(x^{2}-(2 a+b) x+a b=0\), we need to show that it has real roots for all values of \(a\) and \(b\).

Step 2 :To do this, we will prove that the discriminant of the quadratic equation is greater than or equal to 0. The discriminant is given by the formula: \(D = B^2 - 4AC\), where \(A\), \(B\), and \(C\) are the coefficients of the quadratic equation \(Ax^2 + Bx + C = 0\). In our case, \(A = 1\), \(B = -(2a + b)\), and \(C = ab\).

Step 3 :Let's calculate the discriminant and check if it's greater than or equal to 0: \(D = (-2a - b)^2 - 4(1)(ab)\)

Step 4 :Simplifying the discriminant, we get: \(D = 4a^2 + b^2\)

Step 5 :\(\boxed{D = 4a^2 + b^2}\), which is always greater than or equal to 0 for all values of \(a\) and \(b\), since the square of any real number is non-negative.

Step 6 :Therefore, the equation \(x^2 - (2a + b)x + ab = 0\) has real roots for all values of \(a\) and \(b\).

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