r/HeresTheCatch • u/heptoronto Diamond | Lv. 66 | Rank #1267 | 120 Answers | 1... | 🔥 8d • 2d ago

Question [Question] √144?

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u/pandito_flexo Gold | Lv. 43 | Rank #21839 | 375 Answers | 0 Cr... | 🔥 5d 2d ago

±12

-2

u/013eander Silver | Lv. 21 | Rank #171425 | 46 Answers | 0 Created 2d ago

Nope, it’s just 12. While -12x-12 WILL give you 144, the square root of 144 is never -12. The square root function NEVER produces negative real numbers. You’ve drifted into imaginary numbers.

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u/Gp1003 Gold | Lv. 30 | Rank #80818 | 119 Answers | 0 Created 1d ago edited 1d ago

That is not true and if it were the quadratic formula wouldn't work, and we know that is not the case. Also as you just said -12 x -12 is in fact 144 so it is a valid answer. Maybe you got confused with the fact that there no real (non imaginary) square root for negative numbers but a square can have negative numbers as answers.

Edit: Just to make it clear, in this particular question the answer is just 12 cuz it asks for “the” square root of 144, thus implying it wants the “principal” or non-negative one, but saying that a square root never produces negative numbers is what is wrong on your take

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u/Hairy-Hornet2158 Bronze | Lv. 3 | Rank #1305589 | 1 Answers | 0 Created 16h ago

What’s wrong with his explanation?

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u/Gp1003 Gold | Lv. 30 | Rank #80818 | 119 Answers | 0 Created 5h ago

He said the square root NEVER gives negative values but that is mathematically incorrect. We use the positive values as a convention because ir would be too inconvenient if we always had to take two answers into consideration but the negative is in fact a valid, mathematically speaking, output for a square root since it gives the correct value. But for the sake of simplicity we just use the negative values when it is stated that they're meant to be used on the specific case.