|
Question 980262: Hola, okay, so basically, I'm in summer school because I failed math because apparently dividing the mass of the sun with the quantity of 11 times pi and then finding it's square root is going to help me in life. Anyway, I cannot find a single useful source of calculator to help me simplify nonperfect square roots. My brother, whom is in quantum physics could probably help me, but refuses to do anything other than teach me, and I just don't understand.
Sorry about the rant :( I guess I'm just incredibly stressed and angry :(
I guess what I'm looking for is really easy plug-in-the-question-and-get-the-answer solution. PLEASE help me!!!!!
Found 2 solutions by josgarithmetic, KMST:
Answer by josgarithmetic(39616)   (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website! None for it. You must learn number sense. Factorize the number as much as possible and find the square roots of all pair of factors, and with what is still shown, you must do any method you understand to find those square roots; approximate to whatever accuracy you need.
Answer by KMST(5328)  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website! I may know where you are because I have tutored meek high school girls with
pushy engineering student older brothers who kept making them fell dumb.
I think I can help.
Simplifying square roots has very little to do with the mass and volume of the sun,
which should be related to the cube (not the square) of its radius.
A calculator can help you simplify square roots (and cube roots),
but you mostly have to use your own head,
and quick recall of those pesky multiplication facts
that teachers and parents kept insisting that you should memorize,
but they seemed so useless.
Simplifying square roots means going from  to  ,
and things like that.
To do that you need to know that
 and that  .
The hard part of that is finding the factors that will be useful.
Knowing that  does not help;
you need to find that  factor that is a perfect square.
EXAMPLE:
Say you have to simplify  .
There may be a perfect square that is a factor of  ,
with  ,
but how do you find that  factor?
That square factor may be the square of a simple prime number,
like 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31, etc.
It may also be the square of a number made by multiplying those prime numbers,
like  , or  , or  , or  ,
or any other combination.
Knowledge that is already in your head may help you find factors of ,
but the calculator can help too, if you know how to use it.
I look at and I can see that and  are factors,
but the calculator can tell you the same thing, and more:
 <---> and
 <---> .
So,  .
Can we get any other perfect square factor out of  ?
The calculator tells me that  , which is not an integer,
so does not divide evenly by  ,
meaning that is not a factor of .
However,  <---> .
So far we have that
 .
Now we want to find factor of  ,
perfect square factors if possible.
If you realize that  and  ,
you are done (or almost done).
You have pulled out of all the perfect square factors,
and were left with  , which is not a perfect square.
Otherwise, you keep trying dividing by the squares of prime numbers,
until you find that  ,
and the only factor listed that is not a perfect square is .
So,
 .
NOTE:
Questions that you post on this website get answered (or not) by whoever sees the question,
and chooses to spend his/her free time to answer that specific question.
If you want MY answer to any question,
the way to sort-of contact me would be through this website.
You can enter a thank you note to me for this answer.
That triggers an automatic confidential email to the address I used to register,
and that email includes the address you used to register.
I can then send an email to that address,
giving you direct access to my most private email.
To the limits of my (incredible) patience and limited spare time,
I let people bug me with repeated questions.
If you lived near me (in Pennsylvania),
which is unlikely,
I would invite you to come over.
|
|
|
| |
