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[-] UnRelatedBurner@sh.itjust.works 29 points 6 months ago

Uhm, actually 🤓☝️!

Afaik sqrt only returns positive numbers, but if you're searching for X you should do more logic, as both -3 and 3 squared is 9, but sqrt(9) is just 3.

If I'm wrong please correct me, caz I don't really know how to properly write this down in a proof, so I might be wrong here. :p
(ps: I fact checked with wolfram, but I still donno how to split the equation formally)

[-] criitz@reddthat.com 25 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

You're correct. The square root operator only returns the principal root (the positive one).

So if x^2 = 9 then x = ±√9 = ±3

That's why in something like the quadratic formula we all had to memorize in school its got a "plus or minus" in it: -b ± √...(etc)

[-] UnRelatedBurner@sh.itjust.works 9 points 6 months ago

Thanks, I haven't connected the dots to that (+-) sign and this problem.

[-] Routhinator@startrek.website 1 points 6 months ago

So I checked this on my smartphone first, and thought maybe the software is just shit.. So then I checked it on a Casio scientific calc, and both agree.

-3^2 = -9... And 9 != -9

.... Are all the calculators somehow wrong? What's the math rule I'm forgetting here...

[-] criitz@reddthat.com 5 points 6 months ago

I think your calculator is interpreting that as -(3^2) and not (-3)^2

[-] Routhinator@startrek.website 3 points 6 months ago

Oh derp. Yep it is.

Was better when calcs had a +/- button.

And I remembered the math rule too.

[-] Routhinator@startrek.website 1 points 6 months ago

GD I am just realizing how long its been since I did math in my head without a programming language..

I should take a math class again or something and refresh that knowledge.

[-] h3ndrik@feddit.de 22 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

x^2 = 9

<=>

|x| = sqrt(9)

would be correct. That way you get both 3 and -3 for x.

That's the way your math teacher would do it. So the correct version of the statement in the picture is: "if x^2 = 9 then abs(x) = 3"

[-] UnRelatedBurner@sh.itjust.works 4 points 6 months ago

Cool! Makes sense to me. Honestly, I've never done it this way, but it's so clean. Love it. Thanks.

this post was submitted on 17 Apr 2024
781 points (98.0% liked)

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