How do you know an equation is a quadratic?

Answer: it will have three terms. It will be in the form ax^2 + bx + c

The "a" could be any number, but if it is "1", it will be left out.

The "+" sign is often a minus sign.

^2 means "squared" and is usually shown as an exponent, but my keyboard don't have that capability now.

Examples

x^2 + 5x + 4

5x^2 + 13x - 6

2x^2 - 11x + 15