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The probability certain random quadratics have real roots
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 October 2021
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Early in high school algebra, quadratics chosen as examples by teachers and textbooks alike tend to have integer coefficients and to factorise over the integers. This can give the misleading impression that such quadratics are the norm. As students progress into calculus and begin regularly seeing quadratics that are not as ‘nice’, we hope they become disabused of this notion. Indeed, even if the coefficients of the quadratic are integers, the probability that the quadratic factorises over the integers tends to zero as the range from which the integers are drawn grows (see [1]). But what if we ask about a behaviour less restrictive than factorising, say merely having real roots? This is the problem that concerns this Article.
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