Aus Online Mathematik Brückenkurs 2

When we complete the square, we replace all \displaystyle z-terms in the second-degree expression with a quadratic term which contains \displaystyle z, according to the formula

\displaystyle z^2+az = \Bigl(z+\frac{a}{2}\Bigr)^2 - \Bigl(\frac{a}{2}\Bigr)^2\,\textrm{.}

In our case, we set \displaystyle a=3i in order to complete the square,

\displaystyle \begin{align} z^2+3iz-\frac{1}{4} &= \Bigl(z+\frac{3}{2}\,i\Bigr)^2 - \Bigl(\frac{3}{2}\,i\Bigr)^2 - \frac{1}{4}\\[5pt] &= \Bigl(z+\frac{3}{2}\,i\Bigr)^2 - \frac{9}{4}\cdot (-1) - \frac{1}{4}\\[5pt] &= \Bigl(z+\frac{3}{2}\,i\Bigr)^2+2\,\textrm{.} \end{align}