Square Root of a Positive Number

Properties of the square of a number:

a) The square of a number is positive.
For every number a , a  0
2

b) Two opposite numbers have the same square.

For every number a , (  a )  a
2 2

c) Two numbers having the same square are either equal or opposite.
If a 2  b 2 then a  b or a  b

Properties of the square root of a number:

a) The square roots of a positive number a are the numbers whose square is a .
The square roots of 9 are 3 and -3 since (3)  3  9
2 2

b) Zero admits one square root which is zero.

0 0

c) Any strictly positive number a admits two square roots:

a strictly positive square root a
a strictly negative square root - a

d) Any strictly negative number a has no square root. It is not possible to find a number whose
square is negative.
When a0 , a does not exit.

e) If a0 , then ( a ) 2  a , ( a ) 2  a ,
a a a , (a ) 2  a , a2  a

f) If a0 , then ( a ) 2 does not exit

 5 
2
does not exit since  5 does not exit, while,  52  25  5
Don’t be confused between  5 and  5 :
 5 represents the negative square root of 5, while,

 5 represents the square root of a negative number that does not exit.
  Writing c in the simplified form a b (where a, b and c are natural numbers) is to
try to write c in the form of a 2 b

So c= a 2 b = a b where b is the smallest possible number

12 = 22  3 = 2 3

27 = 32  3 = 3 3

 Simplifying a n where a, is a natural number

n

If n is even, then an = a 2

610  6 5
n 1
n
If n is odd, then a =a 2
a

73  7 7 79  7 4 7