Thread: Find the exact value... radicals.

Having a hard time finding the answer to the problem. Can someone help me with this. (6-1)^2 + (15-3)^2 all of this is under a radical sign. I think the answer is 16.46. But I am not sure. I started out by squaring the two sets getting 36+1 +225+9 which equals 271 under a radical sign giving me the answer 16.46. Is this correct

Originally Posted by modecasec

Having a hard time finding the answer to the problem. Can someone help me with this. (6-1) + 15-3)2 all of this is under a ridical sign. I think the answer is 16.46. But I am not sure. I started out by squaring the two sets getting 36+1 +225+9 which equals 271 under a radical sign giving me the answer 16.46. Is this correct

Hi modecasec,

There's a problem with your notation. Your parentheses aren't balanced. You're missing one left parenthesis. Check you problem and edit your post.

What you have is and that is incorrect.

It could be , or

. I'm just guessing at what you intended, so edit your post.

yes I messed that up. The two sets in parenthesis are raised to the secodn degree. what do you get now.

Hello, modecasec!

It's hard to read what you typed, but I'll take a guess . . .

First of all, be careful . . . Don't make up your own rules!
. . is not equal to

Look at what we have:
. .
. .


So we have: . . **


~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

**

Another opportunity to make a fatal error . . .

. . .is not equal to .


Very tempting, isn't it? .Both 25 and 144 are squares.
Well, of course they are!
. . They just came from and , didn't they?

This tempting error appears every time we use the Pythagorean Theorem:
. .
Think about it.