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Constructing a square with the same area as a given oblong using the geometric mean For a quadrature of a rectangle with the sides a and b it is necessary to construct a square with the side x = a b {\displaystyle x={\sqrt {ab}}} (the geometric mean of a and b ).
The diagonals of a square are (about 1.414) times the length of a side of the square. This value, known as the square root of 2 or Pythagoras' constant, [1] was the first number proven to be irrational. A square can also be defined as a parallelogram with equal diagonals that bisect the angles.
The square of an integer may also be called a square number or a perfect square. In algebra, the operation of squaring is often generalized to polynomials, other expressions, or values in systems of mathematical values other than the numbers. For instance, the square of the linear polynomial x + 1 is the quadratic polynomial (x + 1) 2 = x 2 ...
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Inverting this process allows square roots to be found, and similarly for the powers 3, 1/3, 2/3, and 3/2. Care must be taken when the base, x, is found in more than one place on its scale. For instance, there are two nines on the A scale; to find the square root of nine, use the first one; the second one gives the square root of 90.
An equivalent condition is that opposite sides are parallel (a square is a parallelogram), and that the diagonals perpendicularly bisect each other and are of equal length. A quadrilateral is a square if and only if it is both a rhombus and a rectangle (i.e., four equal sides and four equal angles).
The usual notation for the square of a number n is not the product n × n, but the equivalent exponentiation n 2, usually pronounced as "n squared". The name square number comes from the name of the shape. The unit of area is defined as the area of a unit square (1 × 1). Hence, a square with side length n has area n 2.
This crucial step completes a larger square of side length + . Completing the square is the oldest method of solving general quadratic equations , used in Old Babylonian clay tablets dating from 1800–1600 BCE, and is still taught in elementary algebra courses today.