Thanks for clearing that up for me Ian. One thing though- what do you mean when you say "because it can be equal to zero." What can be equal to zero?

Thanks again.

- Jay

Makes sense. Thanks for clearing that up for me.

I understand what you are saying, but this confuses me with the current question I am working on:

x does note equal 0
x^(1/2)
a) negative
b) positive
c) uncertain

I would say that it is uncertain because the square root sign is not here...however, in the answer to this question they say..."this is equivalent to square root of x and all square roots are (except for 0) positive values.

But...b/c the square root is not in the question, I cannot assume it is positive, right?

From California Mathematical Project:
"square root - The square roots of n are all the complex numbers m so that m^2 = n. The square roots of 16 are 4 and -4. The square roots of -16 are 4 i and -4 i"

So technically if you ask a mathematician what is square root of 4, he/she would say -2 and 2, but if we go outside of "math" world, everyone treat square root like a positive number.

P.S.: x^(1/2) could be either positive or i * positive...

P.P.S.: radicant of x is different story. Some math books use it as an arithmetic root only (positive answer), others use it as usual (positive&negative). And we are talking about upper devision math books here

Since it is an exponent, you are going to get two answers... Graph it if you don't fully understand.

So what does GMAT say finally.....that is most important, not what other books say....

Can somebody else please also confirm what the others have said?

does radical(x) always considered by the GMAT to be positive? (assuming x is positive)

PLEASE PEOPLE WHO ARE SURE ABOUT THIS CONFIRM GMACs STANDPOINT ON THIS SPECIFICALLY. DONT REALLY CARE ABOUT OTHER BOOKS RIGHT NOW....

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