would it be just 17a or 4.123105... and a square rooted?
I am confused on whether to treat the 17a the same TOGETHER, or 17 and a SEPERATELY..
thanks so much for all your help!! :)
when i said TOGETHER, I meant to say to treat 17a as if it is one number as a whole or treat 17 and 'a' seperately if this makes sense..
Rameshwar
Favorite Answer
ACTUALLY 17 a^2 means 17 x a^2 therefore square root of 17 a^2 = a x root 17
or = a x 4.123105.........
husoski
The plus or minus answer are wrong, as are the a*â17 answers. First, note that 17a² is 17 times (a²). Order of operations puts the "a to the second power" operation ahead of the "multiply by 17" operation. So, using the product power of square roots:
â(17a²) = â17 * â(a²)
Here's the detail that everyone had missed, when I started typing anyway: â(a²) = |a|
There are two possible square roots for a positive number, but the â symbol specifically means the POSITIVE square root. So, if a is a negative number, a² will be a positive number, and â(a²) will also be positive. That's where the absolute value bars come from. So the aâ17 answer only works if a is 0 or positive.
Edit: Fixed a typo, and the final answer is |a|*â17 .... or (â17) |a| if you like the number first, even if it is under a radical.
Conan
If the 17 and the a^2 are both under the radical, then it is the square root of 17, times the absolute value of a, which would be written as |a|â17
If the a^2 is outside the radical, then it is simply a^2 â17
If you are wondering how to treat
17a^2
It is 17, times the square of a. Only if the 17a is inside parentheses, with the exponent outside them -- written as (17a)^2 -- that you would square the 17. And, if you had that, then your answer would become |17a|
?
The total quantity that is asked to make a square root is indicated either by a LINE BRACKET over the entire area or by using a 1st or 2nd or 3rd bracket that begins just after the root sign.
IN YOUR CASE square root should save been followed by a bracket as : square root of(17a^2) =? to get the answer =4.123 a
But absence of bracket after the square root makes it=(square root of 17)*a^2 =4.123.a^2
Anonymous
In general, â(ab) = (âa)(âb). So applying the same thing here gives you (â17)(a), which is aâ17.
That's the exact answer. There's absolutely no need to write out â17 as some crappy rounded-off decimal.
Some other people are saying ±aâ17, but that's incorrect. When you have a radical to begin with, it's assumed that you take only the positive square root.