Math question need help.

Question

How do I solve y^{2 underneath a radical.}

^and x^{2 underneath a radical.}

^{I’m confused how it turns into y and the other turns into x}

Answer 1

sqrt is the square root

the square root of a number squared is just that same number...

sqrt(5^2) = sqrt(25) = 5 <--- ? * ? = 25 so ?=5

sqrt(6^2) = sqrt(36) = 6 <--- x*x =36, so x=6

...

sqrt(10^2) = sqrt(100) = 10 <--- 10*10=100 , so sqrt(100)=10

IN GENERAL,

sqrt(N^2)= sqrt(N*N) = N

DO you understand?

Answer 2

Dear Yalette,

when you take the square root of a number, for example √16 , you know that the answer is 4. Why is so? It is because 4·4 = 16, when taking √16 we look for a number that when multiplied by itself we get 16.

Another way to write 4·4 is 4². Thus, √4² = 4.

The same for all other positive numbers. √3² = √9 = 3 or √5² = √25 = 5... and so on and so forth.

Since this is true for any positive number, we can use the variables (either x or y in this case) to represent this fact.

√x² = x.

You can also say, that for every positive number x, √ and the power of 2 cancel each other.