How do you solve x^2 = 96?

1 Answer
Feb 7, 2016

4sqrt(6)

Explanation:

We have an x^2 on one side, but we want to make it into a plain x. We do that by taking the square root, and what we do to one side, we do to the other:
x^2=96
sqrt(x^2)=96
x=sqrt(96)

The next step is seeing if we can simplify the radical, and in this case we can. 96 can be broken down to 16*6, which meanssqrt(96) can be broken down to sqrt(16)*sqrt(6). And because sqrt(16)=4, the expression simplifies to 4sqrt(6).