Question

What's the square root of 17?

Answer 1

`sqrt(17) ~= 4.123` is the number which when squared gives `17`

It is an irrational number. That is, it cannot be expressed as `p/q` for integers `p` and `q` with `q!=0`

Explanation:

Actually `17` has two square roots.

We call the positive one `sqrt(17) ~= 4.123`

The negative one is `-sqrt(17) ~= -4.123`