Thread: urgent assignment(due tonight) help

I am supposed to write a program to give the maximum/minimum of a parabola...using user-input values of a,b and c and values of x from -20 to 20 at increments of 0.01.
the output is only supposed to be the value for y and x where y is max/min depending on the parabola....
i wrote the program (below) but its not working prprly....can sumboldy plz plz help me out??

Code:

#include <stdio.h>
int
main (void)
{

double a,b,c,x,y;


printf ("Enter values for a, b and c: ");
scanf ("%lf %lf %lf",&a,&b,&c);

for (x = -20.0;x<=20.0;x = x + 0.01)
	{
	if (a>0 && x == -(b/(4*a)))
		{
		y = a*(x*x) + b*x + c;
		printf ("equation                max/min of y       value of x\n");
		printf ("-------------------     --------------     ----------\n");
		printf ("y = %lfx*x - %lf - %lf     %4.2f  (min)          %4.2f      \n");
		printf ("-------------------     --------------     ----------\n");
		}
	else if (a<0 && x == -(b/(4*a)))
		{
		y = a*(x*x) + b*x + c;
		printf ("equation                max/min of y       value of x\n");
		printf ("-------------------     --------------     ----------\n");
		printf ("y = %lfx*x - %lf - %lf     %4.2f  (max)          %4.2f      \n");
		printf ("-------------------     --------------     ----------\n");
		}
	}

printf ("Report presented by ");
return (0);
}

please please help...
i've tried almost everything i can think of but nothing's helping...

the assignment:

What to do:
The equation of the parabola is
y = ax² + bx + c
Write a complete C program capable of finding the maximum or
minimum of a parabola. As input, the program is to ask the user
data consisting of the values of a, b and c for the parabola.
Find the minimum value (or maximum depending on the parabola)
of y for all values of x between -20.0 and +20.0 in increments
of 0.01.
Your program must produce a nicely aligned report. Display the
minimum/maximum value of y and the value of x at that point.
Display your name(s) at the bottom of the report.
Your code must have good style including comments and proper
indentation.
All numerical values on the report must come from variables,
not constants.

output:

equation max/min of y value of x
------------------- -------------- ----------
y = 1.1x*x – 2x + 1 0.09 (min) 0.91
------------------- --------------- ----------

Report presented by your name(s) here.

It's very unlikely that "x == -(b/(4*a))" will ever be true for randomly inputted values of a and b, so you would expect the program to do nothing. Generally, comparing floating-point numbers for equality is unlikely to work properly due to the finite precision in which they're stored. I take it you're not allowed to do this using calculus (or just rewriting the equation of the parabola so its maximum/minimum is obvious from the equation)?

what if i remove that condition...n only keep a<0 or a>0 as conditions for min/max?
shud it work then?

i'm not sure abt the calculus or rewriting of the eqn...