Square Roots & Radicals

   

Square roots and radicals

A square root is defined as a number which when multiplied by itself gives a real non-negative number called a square.

A square root is best defined using geometry where, considering a square (which is a four sided polygon whose sides are all equal), a square root is defined as the length of the diagonal of this square (a diagonal is a line drawn from one vertex/corner to the opposite vertex of the square).

A radical is a root of a number. A square root is a radical. Roots can be square roots, cube roots, fourth roots and so on.

Where is known as the radical sign and  is known as the radicand.

Khan Link:

https://www.khanacademy.org/math/algebra/rational-exponents-and-radicals/alg1-simplify-square-roots/v/simplifying-square-roots-1