Quadratic function

A quadratic function, in mathematics, is a polynomial function of the form , where are real numbers and . If variable and coefficients are complex number one gets complex quadratic polynomial. It takes its name from the Latin quadratus for square, because quadratic functions arise in the calculation of areas of squares. Because the (highest) exponent of x is 2, a quadratic function is sometimes referred as a degree 2 polynomial or a 2nd degree polynomial. The graph of such a function is a parabola.