The discriminant is \({b^2} - 4ac\), which comes from the quadratic formula and we can use this to find the nature of the roots. Roots can occur in a parabola in 3 different ways as shown in the ...

we can see that this parabola has 2 roots, diagram B has 1 root and diagram C has no roots. What type of roots the equation has can be shown by the discriminant. The discriminant for a quadratic ...