
Katherine P. answered 03/01/13
Positive, Effective, and Experienced Math Tutor
To solve using the square root method, the first step is to make the left side into a squared term.
We're looking for something of the format (x - #)^2, we need the negative because the middle term is negative.
So we have (x - #)^2 = x^2 - 16x + 64,
Take the square root of 64 and you get 8.
So we have (x - 8)^2, which is equal to 49 (from the original problem)
Now we can use the square root property
(x-8)^2 = 49
(x-8) = + or - the square root of 49
x - 8 = + or - 7
x = 7 + 8 = 15 AND x = -7 + 8 = 1
So you get x = 1, 15
Hope this helps you, Sarah! Feel free to message me if you have any other questions :)
Katherine
Sarah P.
Thank you :) You really helped me.
03/09/13