How do you use square roots to solve 2(x+3)^2=8?

2 Answers
Apr 15, 2018

x=-1,-5

Explanation:

Our first step would be to divide both sides by 2. We get:

(x+3)^2=4

We can take the +- square root of both sides, and we will now have two equations:

The first:
x+3=2

color(blue)(=>x=-1)

The second:
x+3=-2

color(blue)(=>x=-5)

We have two equations because we need to take the +- square root of both sides, because when you take the sqrt of a number, there will always be a positive and a negative answer.

Hope this helps!

Apr 15, 2018

Express the answer with surds, it's not possible here as the surd is a perfect square.

Explanation:

So

2(x+3)^2 = 8

(x+3)^2 = 4

(x+3) = +- sqrt4
x = +- 2 - 3