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Properties of Square Roots of Numbers

The principal square root function f(x)=$\sqrt{x}$ (usually just referred to as the "square root function") is a function which maps the set of non-negative real numbers onto itself, and, like all functions, always returns a unique value. In geometrical terms, the square root function maps the area of a square to its side length.

The principal square root function f(x)=$\sqrtx$ (usually just referred to as the "square root function") is a function which maps the set of non-negative real numbers onto itself, and, like all functions, always returns a unique value. In geometrical terms, the square root function maps the area of a square to its side length.

The square root of x is rational if and only if x is a rational number which can be represented as a ratio of two perfect squares. See square root of 2 for proofs that this is an irrational number, and quadratic irrational for a proof for all non-square natural numbers. The square root function maps rational numbers into algebraic numbers (a superset of the rational numbers).

For every real numbers x,

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For all non-negative real numbers x and y,

Properties Of Square Roots Of Numbers

Properties of Square Roots of Complex and Negative Numbers

The square of any positive or negative number is positive, and the square of 0 is 0. Therefore, no negative number can have a real square root. However, it is possible to work with a more inclusive set of numbers, called the complex numbers, that does contain solutions to the square root of a negative number. This is done by introducing a new number, denoted by i (sometimes j, especially in the context of electricity where "i" traditionally represents electric current) and called the imaginary unit, which is defined such that i2 = ?1. Using this notation, we can think of i as the square root of ?1, but notice that we also have (?i)2 = i2 = ?1 and so ?i is also a square root of ?1. By convention, the principal square root of ?1 is i, or more generally, if x is any positive number, then the principal square root of ?x is

$\sqrt{-x}$ = i $\sqrt{x}$

because

(i $\sqrt{x}$ )2 = i2($\sqrt{x}$ )2 (-1)X = -X.

By the argument given above, i can be neither positive nor negative. This creates a problem: for the complex number z, we cannot define ?z to be the "positive" square root of z.

For every non-zero complex number z there exist precisely two numbers w such that w2 = z.

Properties of Imaginary Square Root

The square root of i is given by

$\sqrt{i}$ = $\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}{(1+i)}$

This result can be obtained algebraically by finding a and b such that

i = (a+bi)2

or equivalently

i = a2 + 2abi - b2

This gives the two equations

2ab = 1

a2 - b2 = 0,

which are easily solved to

a = b =± $\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}$

The choice of the principal root then gives

a = b = $\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}$

The result can also be obtained by using De Moivre's theorem and setting

i = cos ($\frac{\pi}{2}$ ) + isin ($\frac{\pi}{2}$)

which produces

$\sqrt{i}$ = (cos ($\frac{\pi}{2}$)) + isin($\frac{\pi}{2}$))$\frac{1}{2}$

= cos ($\frac{\pi}{4}$)) + isin($\frac{\pi}{4}$)

= $\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}$ + i $\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}$

= $\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}$ (1+ i)


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