# Quadratic Equation

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• Jun 19th 2008, 10:22 AM
tricey36
Quadratic Equation
I am having such trouble with these type of problems. Can anyone or someone help me out on this problem. The problem is as follows:(Crying)

Let's say that a company's profitability, p(t), follows p(t) = t^2 - 5t - 50 with p(t) in units of \$1k and t = fiscal months. How long in years will it take the company to be \$ 100k in the black (i.e., p(t) = \$1000,000)?
• Jun 19th 2008, 10:28 AM
TheEmptySet
Quote:

Originally Posted by tricey36
I am having such trouble with these type of problems. Can anyone or someone help me out on this problem. The problem is as follows:(Crying)

Let's say that a company's profitability, p(t), follows p(t) = t^2 - 5t - 50 with p(t) in units of \$1k and t = fiscal months. How long in years will it take the company to be \$ 100k in the black (i.e., p(t) = \$1000,000)?

we want to know when $p(t)=100$ that is

$t^2-5t-50=100 \iff t^2-5t-150=0 \iff (t-15)(t+10)=0$

So we get t=15 or t=-10 since t=-10 doesn't make sense in the context of the problem we use t=15, or it will take them 15 months.

Good luck.