SOLUTION: Is the squ rt of x (squared) = x an identity (true for all values of x)? Explain

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Question 43127This question is from textbook College Algebra with Modeling and Visualization
: Is the squ rt of x (squared) = x an identity (true for all values of x)?
Explain This question is from textbook College Algebra with Modeling and Visualization

Answer by fractalier(6550) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
It depends, actually. On most standardized tests, for example, the square root of a number is always expected to be positive, called the principal root...that is
√25 = 5
but you know that every number has two square roots, a positive and a negative one...
Thus under these terms, your proposition is an identity for all x ≥ 0.
But in truth, it is an identity, since squaring a number and taking its square root are intrinsically inverse operations...