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Square roots of negative numbers are called imaginary because in early-modern mathematics, only what are now called real numbers, obtainable by physical measurements or basic arithmetic, were considered to be numbers at all – even negative numbers were treated with skepticism – so the square root of a negative number was previously considered undefined or nonsensical.
The lack of real square roots for the negative numbers can be used to expand the real number system to the complex numbers, by postulating the imaginary unit i, which is one of the square roots of −1. The property "every non-negative real number is a square" has been generalized to the notion of a real closed field, which is an ordered field ...
An imaginary number is the product of a real number and the imaginary unit i, [note 1] which is defined by its property i 2 = −1. [1] [2] The square of an imaginary number bi is −b 2. For example, 5i is an imaginary number, and its square is −25. The number zero is considered to be both real and imaginary. [3]
Negative numbers are usually written with a minus sign in front. For example, −3 represents a negative quantity with a magnitude of three, and is pronounced "minus three" or "negative three". Conversely, a number that is greater than zero is called positive; zero is usually (but not always) thought of as neither positive nor negative. [2]
This formula distinguishes the complex number i from any real number, since the square of any (negative or positive) real number is always a non-negative real number. With this definition of multiplication and addition, familiar rules for the arithmetic of rational or real numbers continue to hold for complex numbers.
Notation for the (principal) square root of x. For example, √ 25 = 5, since 25 = 5 ⋅ 5, or 5 2 (5 squared). In mathematics, a square root of a number x is a number y such that =; in other words, a number y whose square (the result of multiplying the number by itself, or ) is x. [1]
This "completes the square", converting the left side into a perfect square. Write the left side as a square and simplify the right side if necessary. Produce two linear equations by equating the square root of the left side with the positive and negative square roots of the right side. Solve each of the two linear equations.
Technically, it should be called the principal square root of 2, to distinguish it from the negative number with the same property. Geometrically, the square root of 2 is the length of a diagonal across a square with sides of one unit of length; this follows from the Pythagorean theorem. It was probably the first number known to be irrational. [1]