Exercise 85 Page 176

We will begin by examining the given statement algebraically. In a quadratic equation in standard form where a, b and c are integers, if b is odd, then the quadratic cannot be a perfect square trinomial.A quadratic equation in standard form can be represented as shown below. ax^2+ bx+ c To prove or disprove the statement, we will consider a generic polynomial that is a perfect square. (px+q)^2 ⇔ p^2x + 2pqx+ q^2 We can see that the coefficient of the linear term must be even. Therefore, the statement is always true.