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Square root of squares ...

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by richs_ca » Sun May 04, 2008 10:27 am
If X<0 then sq rt of -X \x\ is (note: \x\ is absolute value of x, not sure how to make the propoer symbol.)

I thought the answer was X. X is negative and it asks for the sq rt of -X, so -(-X) is X. And X times the absolute value of X is X*X which is X^2, and the sq rt of that is X.

But it tells me that the answer is -X. What am I missing?
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Re: Square root of squares ...

by Stuart@KaplanGMAT » Sun May 04, 2008 5:36 pm
richs_ca wrote:If X<0 then sq rt of -X \x\ is (note: \x\ is absolute value of x, not sure how to make the propoer symbol.)

I thought the answer was X. X is negative and it asks for the sq rt of -X, so -(-X) is X. And X times the absolute value of X is X*X which is X^2, and the sq rt of that is X.

But it tells me that the answer is -X. What am I missing?
X is negative and sqrtX is defined as the postive root of X.

So, since the correct answer is positive, and X is negative, we need to multiply X by -1 to make it positive.

In other words, -1(x) = positive number
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by CarpeDiem2011 » Thu Dec 03, 2009 12:35 pm
This question still doesn't make sense - can someone help?
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by rohit.reddy » Thu Dec 03, 2009 11:47 pm
according to me the answer should be "i|x|"
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by beastly B » Mon Dec 27, 2010 9:11 pm
Stuart Kovinsky wrote:
richs_ca wrote:If X<0 then sq rt of -X \x\ is (note: \x\ is absolute value of x, not sure how to make the propoer symbol.)

I thought the answer was X. X is negative and it asks for the sq rt of -X, so -(-X) is X. And X times the absolute value of X is X*X which is X^2, and the sq rt of that is X.

But it tells me that the answer is -X. What am I missing?
X is negative and sqrtX is defined as the postive root of X.

So, since the correct answer is positive, and X is negative, we need to multiply X by -1 to make it positive.

In other words, -1(x) = positive number
yes x would have to -
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by fskilnik@GMATH » Tue Dec 28, 2010 5:29 am
Hi there!

I´ve explained all this before, with FULL details/analysis.

Please have a look at the link below.

Regards,
Fabio.

Link: https://www.beatthegmat.com/ds-t71728.html#324807
Fabio Skilnik :: GMATH method creator ( Math for the GMAT)
English-speakers :: https://www.gmath.net
Portuguese-speakers :: https://www.gmath.com.br
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