How to find the square root of a decimal

Help Questions

GRE Quantitative Reasoning › How to find the square root of a decimal

Questions 1 - 10
1

Solve for :

Explanation

Just like any other equation, isolate your variable. Start by multiplying both sides by :

Now, this is the same as:

You know that is . You can intelligently rewrite this problem as:

, which is the same as:

2

Find the square root of the following decimal:

Explanation

This problem can be solve more easily by rewriting the decimal into scientific notation.

Because has an even exponent, we can take the square root of it by dividing it by 2. The square root of 4 is 2, and the square root of 1 is 1, so the square root of 2.5 is less than 2 and greater than 1.

3

Find the square root of the following decimal:

Explanation

To find the square root of this decimal we convert it into scientific notation.

Because has an even exponent, we can divide the exponenet by 2 to get its square root. The square root of 36 is 6, so the square root of 40 should be a little more than 6, around 6.32.

4

Find the square root of the following decimal:

Explanation

To find the square root of this decimal we convert it into scientific notation.

Because has an even exponent, we can divide the exponenet by 2 to get its square root.

5

Find the square root of the following decimal:

Explanation

To find the square root of this decimal we convert it into scientific notation.

Because has an even exponent, we can divide the exponenet by 2 to get its square root. The square root of 9 is 3, and the square root of 4 is two, so the square root of 6.4 is between 3 and 2, around 2.53

6

Find the square root of the following decimal:

Explanation

To find the square root of this decimal we convert it into scientific notation.

Because has an even exponent, we can divide the exponenet by 2 to get its square root. is a perfect square, whose square root is .

7

Find the square root of the following decimal:

Explanation

This problem becomes much simpler if we rewrite the decimal in scientific notation

Because has an even exponent, we can take its square root by dividing it by two. The square root of 4 is 2, and because 3.6 is a little smaller than 4, its square root is a little smaller than 2, around 1.9

8

Find the square root of the following decimal:

Explanation

To find the square root of this decimal we convert it into scientific notation.

Because has an even exponent, we can divide the exponenet by 2 to get its square root. is a perfect square, whose square root is .

9

Find the square root of the following decimal:

Explanation

To find the square root of this decimal we convert it into scientific notation.

Because has an even exponent, we can divide the exponenet by 2 to get its square root. The square root of 9 is 3, so the square root of 10 should be a little larger than 3, around 3.16

10

Find the square root of the following decimal:

Explanation

The easiest way to find the square root of a fraction is to convert it into scientific notation.

\dpi{100} \small .00081 = 8.1 \times 10^{-4}

The key is that the exponent in scientific notation has to be even for a square root because the square root of an exponent is diving it by two. The square root of 9 is 3, so the square root of 8.1 is a little bit less than 3, around 2.8

\dpi{100} \small \sqrt{8.1 \times 10^{-4}} \approx 2.8 \times 10^{-2} \approx 0.028

Return to subject