Common Misconception About Square Root: Explained

BY Team Aakash Byju's

NCERT Maths Concept

A square root works in the opposite way of squaring numbers. So if you square 5, you get 25, and if you "take the square root of 25", you get 5 

 Find the square root of the number 36.

Example

The largest misconception about using a square root

This is wrong Square roots are always positive, so the correct value is √16 = 4.

The simplified square root has a positive value, which is the only value of the square root, and this positive result is known as the "principle" root.

While either +3 and –3 might have been squared to get 9, "the square root of nine" is defined as only the positive option, +3.

”let's say” If we want the -5 then we do the following:

You can see that the parentheses are used to point out just how the minus sign appears.

This misconception arises because we are sometimes asked to solve equations such as x2 = 9.

In this case, the solution will be found by "taking the square root" of both sides and considering only positive values.