The quadratic equation 2x^2 + 8x + 1 = 0 has roots a and b. Write down the value of a + b, a*b and a^2 + b^2.
Using Vieta's formulas, which make the correspondence between the sums and products of the roots of a polynomial and its coefficients, we can deduce that a + b = (-8)/2 = -4, ab = 1/2 =0.5 and a^2 + b^2 = (a+b)^2 - 2ab = (-4)^2 - 2*0.5 = 16 - 1 = 15.
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