Question 252545
Well inverse means "opposite". So the opposite of squaring a number is taking its square root. For example 2 squared is written as {{{2^2}}} which equals 4. So the PRINCIPAL square root of 4 can be written as {{{sqrt(4)}}} which is equal to 2.

Principal root means the main position root of a number. However remember that when two negative numbers are multiplied together they give a positive number. Therefore square roots of positive real numbers always have two roots: a negative and a positive. So the other root of 144 is -12.