This is the equation of a circle. See: https://www.desmos.com/calculator/z1xxnd2tgl
To get it into "standard form" as CU was saying, we need to complete both squares.
x2 + y2 + 10x + 24y = 0
Rearrange the terms.
x2 + 10x + y2 + 24y = 0
Add (10/2)2 which is 25 to both sides to complete the first square.
x2 + 10x + 25 + y2 + 24y = 25
Add (24/2)2 which is 144 to both sides to complete the second square.
x2 + 10x + 25 + y2 + 24y + 144 = 169
Factor both perfect square trinomials.
(x + 5)2 + (y + 12)2 = 169
Now the equation is in the form we want. So we can see
r2 = 169 , where r is the radius of the circle. And so
area of the circle = π r2 = 169π
We want the discriminant to be negative, so we want
b2 - 4(1)(9) < 0
b2 - 36 < 0
b2 < 36
This is true when...
| b | < 6
Which is true when...
b < 6 and b > -6
So b is any number in the interval (-6, 6)
(The endpoints are not included because that makes the discriminant equal to zero, which gives only one real root to the original polynonmial.)
Check: https://www.desmos.com/calculator/q4gcahv61l
Try moving the slider for b and notice that only and for all b values in the interval (-6, 6) , the graph is entirely above the x-axis.