What are the positive and negative square roots of 36?

Question

31451 views around the world

You can reuse this answer
Creative Commons License

Answer 1 · 2017-01-15T23:49:57

#6# and #-6#

The positive and negative square roots of #36# are #6# and #-6#.

Both #6# and #-6# are square roots of #36# since they both give #36# when squared:

#6^2 = 6xx6 = 36#

#(-6)^2 = (-6)xx(-6) = 36#

All positive real numbers have a positive and negative real square root which are additive inverses of one another.

The principal square root is the positive one and is the one meant when we use the #sqrt(...)# symbol.

So:

#sqrt(36) = 6#

If we want to refer to the negative square root, then just put a minus sign in front:

#-sqrt(36) = -6#