I could follow through up to the triangular field example. I suspect that there is some factoring and cancelling going on.

Nevertheless, I found this article useful in explaining WHY we have quadratic equations, and knowing why we have them helps me understand why/where/how we might apply them in real life situations. This was never taught to me at school. Instead, we just had to recognise when an equation was quadratic, learn the formula, then apply it.