What is the middle term of a quadratic equation?

A quadratic equation, when written in the standard form, has three terms.

• The first term is the term containing x squared in it. Example, 2x^2
• The second term is the term containing a single x in it. Example, 2x
• The third term is a number. Example, 2.

The quadratic equation with the above three terms would be 2x^2 + 2x + 2 = 0

Therefore the middle term of a quadratic equation is the term having a single x in it. It is the term in which the variable coefficient is x. The exponent on the variable in the middle term of a quadratic equation is 1.

The middle term is very important as it is split into two terms when factoring a quadratic equation by the method of splitting the middle term.

For example, the middle term of the following quadratic equations are:

• 2x^2 + 3x + 8 = 0; middle term is 3x
• 4x^2 - 5x + 6 = 0; middle term is -5x
• x^2 - 9 = 0; there is no middle term