Solving Quadratic Equations in Python: A Guide to Counting the Number of Real Solutions

Determine the Number of Distinct Solutions for a Quadratic Equation

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Introduction

In this tutorial, we’ll explore a Python programming problem that involves counting the number of distinct solutions for a quadratic equation. We’ll create a function that takes the coefficients of a quadratic equation as arguments and returns the number of real solutions.

Step 1: Defining the Function

First, let’s define a function called solutions that takes the coefficients of a quadratic equation as arguments:

def solutions(a, b, c):
  # Determine the number of distinct solutions for the quadratic equation

Step 2: Determining the Number of Distinct Solutions

We’ll use the discriminant formula to determine the number of distinct solutions for the quadratic equation. The discriminant is the expression under the square root sign in the quadratic formula, b² — 4ac.

If the discriminant is greater than 0, the quadratic equation has two distinct real solutions. If the discriminant is equal to 0, the quadratic equation has one real…