Arithmetic (Roots)

Why is this response incorrect? There’s no solution tab for this question either.

You can assume that \sqrt{x^2} = x and see if it works for something like x = -2.

\sqrt{(-2)^2} = 2 \neq -2

In general, you have that \sqrt{x^2} = |x|, because as you’ve seen above the signs don’t check out for negative values of x, and so the absolute value takes care of this issue.

1 Like

Thanks, this is helpful.