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29 points

Uhm, actually 🤓☝️!

Afaik sqrt only returns positive numbers, but if you’re searching for X you should do more logic, as both -3 and 3 squared is 9, but sqrt(9) is just 3.

If I’m wrong please correct me, caz I don’t really know how to properly write this down in a proof, so I might be wrong here. :p
(ps: I fact checked with wolfram, but I still donno how to split the equation formally)

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25 points
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You’re correct. The square root operator only returns the principal root (the positive one).

So if x^2 = 9 then x = ±√9 = ±3

That’s why in something like the quadratic formula we all had to memorize in school its got a “plus or minus” in it: -b ± √…(etc)

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9 points

Thanks, I haven’t connected the dots to that (±) sign and this problem.

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1 point

So I checked this on my smartphone first, and thought maybe the software is just shit… So then I checked it on a Casio scientific calc, and both agree.

-3^2 = -9… And 9 != -9

… Are all the calculators somehow wrong? What’s the math rule I’m forgetting here…

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5 points

I think your calculator is interpreting that as -(3^2) and not (-3)^2

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22 points
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x^2 = 9

<=>

|x| = sqrt(9)

would be correct. That way you get both 3 and -3 for x.

That’s the way your math teacher would do it. So the correct version of the statement in the picture is: “if x^2 = 9 then abs(x) = 3”

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4 points

Cool! Makes sense to me. Honestly, I’ve never done it this way, but it’s so clean. Love it. Thanks.

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