From Förberedande kurs i matematik 1

If we complete the square of the expression, we have that

\displaystyle \begin{align} x^{2} - 5x + 7 &= \Bigl(x-\frac{5}{2}\Bigr)^{2} - \Bigl(\frac{5}{2}\Bigr)^{2} + 7\\[5pt] &= \Bigl(x-\frac{5}{2}\Bigr)^{2} - \frac{25}{4} + \frac{28}{4}\\[5pt] &= \Bigl(x-\frac{5}{2}\Bigr)^{2} + \frac{3}{4} \end{align}

and because \displaystyle \bigl(x-\tfrac{5}{2}\bigr)^{2} is a quadratic, this term assumes a minimal value zero when \displaystyle x=5/2\,. This shows that the polynomial's smallest value is \displaystyle \tfrac{3}{4}.