What are radical numbers?

Answers (1)

Lay two buttons in a row. Now lay a second row of two buttons and you have a square with a total of four buttons. So four is a square number and the root of four is two.

Make a square of nine buttons and it has three buttons on each side. So nine is a square number and the root of nine is three.

Radical is Latin for root, but the square root sign √ is called the radical, not any number.

You can type that symbol by holding the Alt key and typing 251 on the numeric keypad. www.alt-codes.net/

Votes: +0 / -0

You might be thinking of rational numbers. A rational number can be expressed as the ratio of two integers.

√2 = 1.414213562 The root of two is not a ratio of two integers. It is irrational.

1/√2 is not a proper fraction because it defines a ratio of something that by definition is not a ratio. So you do a trick to rationalize it: 1/√2 x √2/√2 = √2/2

A repeating decimal is always rational. 1/9 = 1.111...

10x = 11.111...
x = 1.111...
-------------- SUBTRACT
9x = 1
x = 1/9

If the decimal repeats every second digit you would multiply by 10^2. 1/99 = 0.0101....

100x = 1.010....
x = 0.0101..
---------------- SUBTRACT
99x = 1
x = 1/99

You might be thinking of rational numbers. A rational number can be expressed as the ratio of two integers.

√2 = 1.414213562 The root of two is not a ratio of two integers. It is irrational.

1/√2 is not a proper fraction because it defines a ratio of something that by definition is not a ratio. So you do a trick to rationalize it: 1/√2 x √2/√2 = √2/2

A repeating decimal is always rational. 1/9 = 1.111...

10x = 11.111...
x = 1.111...
-------------- SUBTRACT
9x = 1
x = 1/9

If the decimal repeats every second digit you would multiply by 10^2. 1/99 = 0.0101....

100x = 1.010....
x = 0.0101..
---------------- SUBTRACT
99x = 1
x = 1/99