ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses non-linear equations by focusing more on quadratic equations. It explains how to identify the roots of a quadratic equation which allows to investigate the application of non linear equations in major business, scientific and economic problems. From around 800 B.C. quadratic equations were being studied in India. Later Euclid and Pythagoras also tried to find their solutions. But it was not until the Persian mathematician and astronomer Abu ‘Abdallah Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi wrote the book ‘Kitab al-Jabr wa-l-Muqabala’, in around 820 A.D., that a systematic way of solving quadratic equations was found. Exponential growth occurs when the growth rate is equal to a certain percentage of the whole object that is growing. Important examples include the growth of the world’s population: the number of babies born each year equals a certain percentage of the world population in that given year.
