Question what-i
What is the solution set of the equation above?
What is the solution set of the equation above?
Hard-difficulty · SAT Math · Nonlinear Equations in One Variable — Quadratic solving (factoring, quadratic formula, completing square). Read the question above, select your answer, and check the full explanation below to understand exactly why the correct choice works.
Answer explanation
Choice B is correct. Subtracting 4 from both sides of isolates the radical expression on the left side of the equation as follows:
. Squaring both sides of
yields
. This equation can be rewritten as a quadratic equation in standard form:
. One way to solve this quadratic equation is to factor the expression
by identifying two numbers with a sum of
and a product of
. These numbers are
and 1. So the quadratic equation can be factored as
. It follows that 5 and
are the solutions to the quadratic equation. However, the solutions must be verified by checking whether 5 and
satisfy the original equation,
. When
, the original equation gives
, or
, which is false. Therefore,
does not satisfy the original equation. When
, the original equation gives
, or
, which is true. Therefore,
is the only solution to the original equation, and so the solution set is
.
Choices A, C, and D are incorrect because each of these sets contains at least one value that results in a false statement when substituted into the given equation. For instance, in choice D, when 0 is substituted for x into the given equation, the result is , or
. This is not a true statement, so 0 is not a solution to the given equation.
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