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nth root

In mathematics, taking the nth root is an operation involving two numbers, the radicand and the index or degree. Taking the nth root is written as , where x is the radicand and n is the index (also sometimes called the degree). This is pronounced as "the nth root of x". The definition then of an nth root of a number x is a number r (the root) which, when raised to the power of the positive integer n, yields x:

A root of degree 2 is called a square root (usually written without the n as just ) and a root of degree 3, a cube root (written ). Roots of higher degree are referred by using ordinal numbers, as in fourth root, twentieth root, etc. The computation of an nth root is a root extraction.

For example, 3 is a square root of 9, since 32 = 9, and −3 is also a square root of 9, since (−3)2 = 9.

Any non-zero number considered as a complex number has n different complex nth roots, including the real ones (at most two). The nth root of 0 is zero for all positive integers n, since 0n = 0. In particular, if n is even and x is a positive real number, one of its nth roots is real and positive, one is negative, and the others (when n > 2) are non-real complex numbers; if n is even and x is a negative real number, none of the nth roots are real. If n is odd and x is real, one nth root is real and has the same sign as x, while the other (n – 1) roots are not real. Finally, if x is not real, then none of its nth roots are real.

Roots of real numbers are usually written using the radical symbol or radix , with denoting the positive square root of x if x is positive; for higher roots, denotes the real nth root if n is odd, and the positive nth root if n is even and x is positive. In the other cases, the symbol is not commonly used as being ambiguous.

When complex nth roots are considered, it is often useful to choose one of the roots, called principal root, as a principal value. The common choice is to choose the principal nth root of x as the nth root with the greatest real part, and when there are two (for x real and negative), the one with a positive imaginary part. This makes the nth root a function that is real and positive for x real and positive, and is continuous in the whole complex plane, except for values of x that are real and negative.

A difficulty with this choice is that, for a negative real number and an odd index, the principal nth root is not the real one. For example, has three cube roots, , and The real cube root is and the principal cube root is

An unresolved root, especially one using the radical symbol, is sometimes referred to as a surd[1] or a radical.[2] Any expression containing a radical, whether it is a square root, a cube root, or a higher root, is called a radical expression, and if it contains no transcendental functions or transcendental numbers it is called an algebraic expression.

The positive root of a number is the inverse operation of exponentiation with positive integer exponents.[3] Roots can also be defined as special cases of exponentiation, where the exponent is a fraction:

Roots are used for determining the radius of convergence of a power series with the root test. The nth roots of 1 are called roots of unity and play a fundamental role in various areas of mathematics, such as number theory, theory of equations, and Fourier transform.

History edit

An archaic term for the operation of taking nth roots is radication.[4][5]

Definition and notation edit

 
The four 4th roots of −1,
none of which are real
 
The three 3rd roots of −1,
one of which is a negative real

An nth root of a number x, where n is a positive integer, is any of the n real or complex numbers r whose nth power is x:

 

Every positive real number x has a single positive nth root, called the principal nth root, which is written  . For n equal to 2 this is called the principal square root and the n is omitted. The nth root can also be represented using exponentiation as x1/n.

For even values of n, positive numbers also have a negative nth root, while negative numbers do not have a real nth root. For odd values of n, every negative number x has a real negative nth root. For example, −2 has a real 5th root,   but −2 does not have any real 6th roots.

Every non-zero number x, real or complex, has n different complex number nth roots. (In the case x is real, this count includes any real nth roots.) The only complex root of 0 is 0.

The nth roots of almost all numbers (all integers except the nth powers, and all rationals except the quotients of two nth powers) are irrational. For example,

 

All nth roots of rational numbers are algebraic numbers, and all nth roots of integers are algebraic integers.

The term "surd" traces back to Al-Khwarizmi (c. 825), who referred to rational and irrational numbers as audible and inaudible, respectively. This later led to the Arabic word "أصم" (asamm, meaning "deaf" or "dumb") for irrational number being translated into Latin as surdus (meaning "deaf" or "mute"). Gerard of Cremona (c. 1150), Fibonacci (1202), and then Robert Recorde (1551) all used the term to refer to unresolved irrational roots, that is, expressions of the form   in which   and   are integer numerals and the whole expression denotes an irrational number.[6] Irrational numbers of the form   where   is rational, are called pure quadratic surds; irrational numbers of the form   where   and   are rational, are called mixed quadratic surds.[7]

Square roots edit

 
The graph  .

A square root of a number x is a number r which, when squared, becomes x:

 

Every positive real number has two square roots, one positive and one negative. For example, the two square roots of 25 are 5 and −5. The positive square root is also known as the principal square root, and is denoted with a radical sign:

 

Since the square of every real number is nonnegative, negative numbers do not have real square roots. However, for every negative real number there are two imaginary square roots. For example, the square roots of −25 are 5i and −5i, where i represents a number whose square is −1.

Cube roots edit

 
The graph  .

A cube root of a number x is a number r whose cube is x:

 

Every real number x has exactly one real cube root, written  . For example,

  and  

Every real number has two additional complex cube roots.

Identities and properties edit

Expressing the degree of an nth root in its exponent form, as in  , makes it easier to manipulate powers and roots. If   is a non-negative real number,

 

Every non-negative number has exactly one non-negative real nth root, and so the rules for operations with surds involving non-negative radicands   and   are straightforward within the real numbers:

 

Subtleties can occur when taking the nth roots of negative or complex numbers. For instance:

  but, rather,  

Since the rule   strictly holds for non-negative real radicands only, its application leads to the inequality in the first step above.

Simplified form of a radical expression edit

A non-nested radical expression is said to be in simplified form if no factor of the radicand can be written as a power greater than or equal to the index; there are no fractions inside the radical sign; and there are no radicals in the denominator.[8]

For example, to write the radical expression   in simplified form, we can proceed as follows. First, look for a perfect square under the square root sign and remove it:

 

Next, there is a fraction under the radical sign, which we change as follows:

 

Finally, we remove the radical from the denominator as follows:

 

When there is a denominator involving surds it is always possible to find a factor to multiply both numerator and denominator by to simplify the expression.[9][10] For instance using the factorization of the sum of two cubes:

 

Simplifying radical expressions involving nested radicals can be quite difficult. In particular, denesting is not always possible, and when possible, it may involve advanced Galois theory. Moreover, when complete denesting is impossible, there is no general canonical form such that the equality of two numbers can be tested by simply looking at their canonical expressions.

For example, it is not obvious that

 

The above can be derived through:

 

Let  , with p and q coprime and positive integers. Then   is rational if and only if both   and   are integers, which means that both p and q are nth powers of some integer.

Infinite series edit

The radical or root may be represented by the infinite series:

 

with  . This expression can be derived from the binomial series.

Computing principal roots edit

Using Newton's method edit

The nth root of a number A can be computed with Newton's method, which starts with an initial guess x0 and then iterates using the recurrence relation

 

until the desired precision is reached. For computational efficiency, the recurrence relation is commonly rewritten

 

This allows to have only one exponentiation, and to compute once for all the first factor of each term.

For example, to find the fifth root of 34, we plug in n = 5, A = 34 and x0 = 2 (initial guess). The first 5 iterations are, approximately:
x0 = 2
x1 = 2.025
x2 = 2.02439 7...
x3 = 2.02439 7458...
x4 = 2.02439 74584 99885 04251 08172...
x5 = 2.02439 74584 99885 04251 08172 45541 93741 91146 21701 07311 8...
(All correct digits shown.)

The approximation x4 is accurate to 25 decimal places and x5 is good for 51.

Newton's method can be modified to produce various generalized continued fractions for the nth root. For example,

 

Digit-by-digit calculation of principal roots of decimal (base 10) numbers edit

 
Pascal's Triangle showing  .

Building on the digit-by-digit calculation of a square root, it can be seen that the formula used there,  , or  , follows a pattern involving Pascal's triangle. For the nth root of a number   is defined as the value of element   in row   of Pascal's Triangle such that  , we can rewrite the expression as  . For convenience, call the result of this expression  . Using this more general expression, any positive principal root can be computed, digit-by-digit, as follows.

Write the original number in decimal form. The numbers are written similar to the long division algorithm, and, as in long division, the root will be written on the line above. Now separate the digits into groups of digits equating to the root being taken, starting from the decimal point and going both left and right. The decimal point of the root will be above the decimal point of the radicand. One digit of the root will appear above each group of digits of the original number.

Beginning with the left-most group of digits, do the following procedure for each group:

  1. Starting on the left, bring down the most significant (leftmost) group of digits not yet used (if all the digits have been used, write "0" the number of times required to make a group) and write them to the right of the remainder from the previous step (on the first step, there will be no remainder). In other words, multiply the remainder by   and add the digits from the next group. This will be the current value c.
  2. Find p and x, as follows:
    • Let   be the part of the root found so far, ignoring any decimal point. (For the first step,   and  ).
    • Determine the greatest digit   such that  .
    • Place the digit   as the next digit of the root, i.e., above the group of digits you just brought down. Thus the next p will be the old p times 10 plus x.
  3. Subtract   from   to form a new remainder.
  4. If the remainder is zero and there are no more digits to bring down, then the algorithm has terminated. Otherwise go back to step 1 for another iteration.

Examples edit

Find the square root of 152.2756.

  1 2. 3 4    / \/ 01 52.27 56 (Results) (Explanations)   01 x = 1 100·1·00·12 + 101·2·01·11 ≤ 1 < 100·1·00·22 + 101·2·01·21  01  y = 1 y = 100·1·00·12 + 101·2·01·11 = 1 + 0 = 1 00 52 x = 2 100·1·10·22 + 101·2·11·21 ≤ 52 < 100·1·10·32 + 101·2·11·31  00 44  y = 44 y = 100·1·10·22 + 101·2·11·21 = 4 + 40 = 44 08 27 x = 3 100·1·120·32 + 101·2·121·31 ≤ 827 < 100·1·120·42 + 101·2·121·41  07 29  y = 729 y = 100·1·120·32 + 101·2·121·31 = 9 + 720 = 729 98 56 x = 4 100·1·1230·42 + 101·2·1231·41 ≤ 9856 < 100·1·1230·52 + 101·2·1231·51  98 56  y = 9856 y = 100·1·1230·42 + 101·2·1231·41 = 16 + 9840 = 9856 00 00 

Algorithm terminates: Answer is 12.34

Find the cube root of 4192 truncated to the nearest thousandth.

  1 6. 1 2 4 3 / \/ 004 192.000 000 000 (Results) (Explanations)   004 x = 1 100·1·00·13 + 101·3·01·12 + 102·3·02·11 ≤ 4 < 100·1·00·23 + 101·3·01·22 + 102·3·02·21  001  y = 1 y = 100·1·00·13 + 101·3·01·12 + 102·3·02·11 = 1 + 0 + 0 = 1 003 192 x = 6 100·1·10·63 + 101·3·11·62 + 102·3·12·61 ≤ 3192 < 100·1·10·73 + 101·3·11·72 + 102·3·12·71  003 096  y = 3096 y = 100·1·10·63 + 101·3·11·62 + 102·3·12·61 = 216 + 1,080 + 1,800 = 3,096 096 000 x = 1 100·1·160·13 + 101·3·161·12 + 102·3·162·11 ≤ 96000 < 100·1·160·23 + 101·3·161·22 + 102·3·162·21  077 281  y = 77281 y = 100·1·160·13 + 101·3·161·12 + 102·3·162·11 = 1 + 480 + 76,800 = 77,281 018 719 000 x = 2 100·1·1610·23 + 101·3·1611·22 + 102·3·1612·21 ≤ 18719000 < 100·1·1610·33 + 101·3·1611·32 + 102·3·1612·31  015 571 928  y = 15571928 y = 100·1·1610·23 + 101·3·1611·22 + 102·3·1612·21 = 8 + 19,320 + 15,552,600 = 15,571,928 003 147 072 000 x = 4 100·1·16120·43 + 101·3·16121·42 + 102·3·16122·41 ≤ 3147072000 < 100·1·16120·53 + 101·3·16121·52 + 102·3·16122·51 

The desired precision is achieved. The cube root of 4192 is 16.124...

Logarithmic calculation edit

The principal nth root of a positive number can be computed using logarithms. Starting from the equation that defines r as an nth root of x, namely   with x positive and therefore its principal root r also positive, one takes logarithms of both sides (any base of the logarithm will do) to obtain

 

The root r is recovered from this by taking the antilog:

 

(Note: That formula shows b raised to the power of the result of the division, not b multiplied by the result of the division.)

For the case in which x is negative and n is odd, there is one real root r which is also negative. This can be found by first multiplying both sides of the defining equation by −1 to obtain   then proceeding as before to find |r|, and using r = −|r|.

Geometric constructibility edit

The ancient Greek mathematicians knew how to use compass and straightedge to construct a length equal to the square root of a given length, when an auxiliary line of unit length is given. In 1837 Pierre Wantzel proved that an nth root of a given length cannot be constructed if n is not a power of 2.[11]

Complex roots edit

Every complex number other than 0 has n different nth roots.

Square roots edit

 
The square roots of i

The two square roots of a complex number are always negatives of each other. For example, the square roots of −4 are 2i and −2i, and the square roots of i are

 

If we express a complex number in polar form, then the square root can be obtained by taking the square root of the radius and halving the angle:

 

A principal root of a complex number may be chosen in various ways, for example

 

which introduces a branch cut in the complex plane along the positive real axis with the condition 0 ≤ θ < 2π, or along the negative real axis with π < θ ≤ π.

Using the first(last) branch cut the principal square root   maps   to the half plane with non-negative imaginary(real) part. The last branch cut is presupposed in mathematical software like Matlab or Scilab.

Roots of unity edit

 
The three 3rd roots of 1

The number 1 has n different nth roots in the complex plane, namely

 

where

 

These roots are evenly spaced around the unit circle in the complex plane, at angles which are multiples of  . For example, the square roots of unity are 1 and −1, and the fourth roots of unity are 1,  , −1, and  .

nth roots edit

 
Geometric representation of the 2nd to 6th roots of a complex number z, in polar form re where r = |z | and φ = arg z. If z is real, φ = 0 or π. Principal roots are shown in black.

Every complex number has n different nth roots in the complex plane. These are

 

where η is a single nth root, and 1, ωω2, ... ωn−1 are the nth roots of unity. For example, the four different fourth roots of 2 are

 

In polar form, a single nth root may be found by the formula

 

Here r is the magnitude (the modulus, also called the absolute value) of the number whose root is to be taken; if the number can be written as a+bi then  . Also,   is the angle formed as one pivots on the origin counterclockwise from the positive horizontal axis to a ray going from the origin to the number; it has the properties that     and  

Thus finding nth roots in the complex plane can be segmented into two steps. First, the magnitude of all the nth roots is the nth root of the magnitude of the original number. Second, the angle between the positive horizontal axis and a ray from the origin to one of the nth roots is  , where   is the angle defined in the same way for the number whose root is being taken. Furthermore, all n of the nth roots are at equally spaced angles from each other.

If n is even, a complex number's nth roots, of which there are an even number, come in additive inverse pairs, so that if a number r1 is one of the nth roots then r2 = –r1 is another. This is because raising the latter's coefficient –1 to the nth power for even n yields 1: that is, (–r1)n = (–1)n × r1n = r1n.

As with square roots, the formula above does not define a continuous function over the entire complex plane, but instead has a branch cut at points where θ / n is discontinuous.

Solving polynomials edit

It was once conjectured that all polynomial equations could be solved algebraically (that is, that all roots of a polynomial could be expressed in terms of a finite number of radicals and elementary operations). However, while this is true for third degree polynomials (cubics) and fourth degree polynomials (quartics), the Abel–Ruffini theorem (1824) shows that this is not true in general when the degree is 5 or greater. For example, the solutions of the equation

 

cannot be expressed in terms of radicals. (cf. quintic equation)

Proof of irrationality for non-perfect nth power x edit

Assume that   is rational. That is, it can be reduced to a fraction  , where a and b are integers without a common factor.

This means that  .

Since x is an integer,  and  must share a common factor if  . This means that if  ,   is not in simplest form. Thus b should equal 1.

Since   and  ,  .

This means that   and thus,  . This implies that   is an integer. Since x is not a perfect nth power, this is impossible. Thus   is irrational.

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ Bansal, R.K. (2006). New Approach to CBSE Mathematics IX. Laxmi Publications. p. 25. ISBN 978-81-318-0013-3.
  2. ^ Silver, Howard A. (1986). Algebra and trigonometry. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. ISBN 978-0-13-021270-2.
  3. ^ "Lesson Explainer: nth Roots: Integers". Retrieved 22 July 2023.
  4. ^ "Definition of RADICATION". www.merriam-webster.com.
  5. ^ . Oxford Dictionaries. Archived from the original on April 3, 2018.
  6. ^ "Earliest Known Uses of Some of the Words of Mathematics". Mathematics Pages by Jeff Miller. Retrieved 2008-11-30.
  7. ^ Hardy, G. H. (1921). A Course of Pure Mathematics (3rd ed.). Cambridge. §1.13 "Quadratic Surds" – §1.14, pp. 19–23.
  8. ^ McKeague, Charles P. (2011). Elementary algebra. Cengage Learning. p. 470. ISBN 978-0-8400-6421-9.
  9. ^ B.F. Caviness, R.J. Fateman, "Simplification of Radical Expressions", Proceedings of the 1976 ACM Symposium on Symbolic and Algebraic Computation, p. 329.
  10. ^ Richard Zippel, "Simplification of Expressions Involving Radicals", Journal of Symbolic Computation 1:189–210 (1985) doi:10.1016/S0747-7171(85)80014-6.
  11. ^ Wantzel, M. L. (1837), "Recherches sur les moyens de reconnaître si un Problème de Géométrie peut se résoudre avec la règle et le compas", Journal de Mathématiques Pures et Appliquées, 1 (2): 366–372.

External links edit

root, this, article, about, roots, real, complex, numbers, other, uses, root, disambiguation, mathematics, this, article, needs, additional, citations, verification, please, help, improve, this, article, adding, citations, reliable, sources, unsourced, materia. This article is about nth roots of real and complex numbers For other uses see Root disambiguation Mathematics This article needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources Nth root news newspapers books scholar JSTOR October 2022 Learn how and when to remove this message In mathematics taking the nth root is an operation involving two numbers the radicand and the index or degree Taking the nth root is written as x n displaystyle sqrt n x where x is the radicand and n is the index also sometimes called the degree This is pronounced as the nth root of x The definition then of an nth root of a number x is a number r the root which when raised to the power of the positive integer n yields x r n x displaystyle r n x A root of degree 2 is called a square root usually written without the n as just x displaystyle sqrt x and a root of degree 3 a cube root written x 3 displaystyle sqrt 3 x Roots of higher degree are referred by using ordinal numbers as in fourth root twentieth root etc The computation of an n th root is a root extraction For example 3 is a square root of 9 since 32 9 and 3 is also a square root of 9 since 3 2 9 Any non zero number considered as a complex number has n different complex n th roots including the real ones at most two The n th root of 0 is zero for all positive integers n since 0n 0 In particular if n is even and x is a positive real number one of its n th roots is real and positive one is negative and the others when n gt 2 are non real complex numbers if n is even and x is a negative real number none of the n th roots are real If n is odd and x is real one n th root is real and has the same sign as x while the other n 1 roots are not real Finally if x is not real then none of its n th roots are real Roots of real numbers are usually written using the radical symbol or radix displaystyle sqrt with x displaystyle sqrt x denoting the positive square root of x if x is positive for higher roots x n displaystyle sqrt n x denotes the real n th root if n is odd and the positive nth root if n is even and x is positive In the other cases the symbol is not commonly used as being ambiguous When complex n th roots are considered it is often useful to choose one of the roots called principal root as a principal value The common choice is to choose the principal n th root of x as the n th root with the greatest real part and when there are two for x real and negative the one with a positive imaginary part This makes the n th root a function that is real and positive for x real and positive and is continuous in the whole complex plane except for values of x that are real and negative A difficulty with this choice is that for a negative real number and an odd index the principal n th root is not the real one For example 8 displaystyle 8 has three cube roots 2 displaystyle 2 1 i 3 displaystyle 1 i sqrt 3 and 1 i 3 displaystyle 1 i sqrt 3 The real cube root is 2 displaystyle 2 and the principal cube root is 1 i 3 displaystyle 1 i sqrt 3 An unresolved root especially one using the radical symbol is sometimes referred to as a surd 1 or a radical 2 Any expression containing a radical whether it is a square root a cube root or a higher root is called a radical expression and if it contains no transcendental functions or transcendental numbers it is called an algebraic expression The positive root of a number is the inverse operation of exponentiation with positive integer exponents 3 Roots can also be defined as special cases of exponentiation where the exponent is a fraction x n x 1 n displaystyle sqrt n x x 1 n Roots are used for determining the radius of convergence of a power series with the root test The n th roots of 1 are called roots of unity and play a fundamental role in various areas of mathematics such as number theory theory of equations and Fourier transform Contents 1 History 2 Definition and notation 2 1 Square roots 2 2 Cube roots 3 Identities and properties 4 Simplified form of a radical expression 5 Infinite series 6 Computing principal roots 6 1 Using Newton s method 6 2 Digit by digit calculation of principal roots of decimal base 10 numbers 6 2 1 Examples 6 3 Logarithmic calculation 7 Geometric constructibility 8 Complex roots 8 1 Square roots 8 2 Roots of unity 8 3 nth roots 9 Solving polynomials 10 Proof of irrationality for non perfect nth power x 11 See also 12 References 13 External linksHistory editMain articles Square root History and Cube root History An archaic term for the operation of taking nth roots is radication 4 5 Definition and notation edit nbsp The four 4th roots of 1 none of which are real nbsp The three 3rd roots of 1 one of which is a negative real An nth root of a number x where n is a positive integer is any of the n real or complex numbers r whose nth power is x r n x displaystyle r n x nbsp Every positive real number x has a single positive nth root called the principal nth root which is written x n displaystyle sqrt n x nbsp For n equal to 2 this is called the principal square root and the n is omitted The nth root can also be represented using exponentiation as x1 n For even values of n positive numbers also have a negative nth root while negative numbers do not have a real nth root For odd values of n every negative number x has a real negative nth root For example 2 has a real 5th root 2 5 1 148698354 displaystyle sqrt 5 2 1 148698354 ldots nbsp but 2 does not have any real 6th roots Every non zero number x real or complex has n different complex number nth roots In the case x is real this count includes any real nth roots The only complex root of 0 is 0 The nth roots of almost all numbers all integers except the nth powers and all rationals except the quotients of two nth powers are irrational For example 2 1 414213562 displaystyle sqrt 2 1 414213562 ldots nbsp All nth roots of rational numbers are algebraic numbers and all nth roots of integers are algebraic integers The term surd traces back to Al Khwarizmi c 825 who referred to rational and irrational numbers as audible and inaudible respectively This later led to the Arabic word أصم asamm meaning deaf or dumb for irrational number being translated into Latin as surdus meaning deaf or mute Gerard of Cremona c 1150 Fibonacci 1202 and then Robert Recorde 1551 all used the term to refer to unresolved irrational roots that is expressions of the form r n displaystyle sqrt n r nbsp in which n displaystyle n nbsp and r displaystyle r nbsp are integer numerals and the whole expression denotes an irrational number 6 Irrational numbers of the form a displaystyle pm sqrt a nbsp where a displaystyle a nbsp is rational are called pure quadratic surds irrational numbers of the form a b displaystyle a pm sqrt b nbsp where a displaystyle a nbsp and b displaystyle b nbsp are rational are called mixed quadratic surds 7 Square roots edit nbsp The graph y x displaystyle y pm sqrt x nbsp Main article Square root A square root of a number x is a number r which when squared becomes x r 2 x displaystyle r 2 x nbsp Every positive real number has two square roots one positive and one negative For example the two square roots of 25 are 5 and 5 The positive square root is also known as the principal square root and is denoted with a radical sign 25 5 displaystyle sqrt 25 5 nbsp Since the square of every real number is nonnegative negative numbers do not have real square roots However for every negative real number there are two imaginary square roots For example the square roots of 25 are 5i and 5i where i represents a number whose square is 1 Cube roots edit nbsp The graph y x 3 displaystyle y sqrt 3 x nbsp Main article Cube root A cube root of a number x is a number r whose cube is x r 3 x displaystyle r 3 x nbsp Every real number x has exactly one real cube root written x 3 displaystyle sqrt 3 x nbsp For example 8 3 2 displaystyle sqrt 3 8 2 nbsp and 8 3 2 displaystyle sqrt 3 8 2 nbsp Every real number has two additional complex cube roots Identities and properties editExpressing the degree of an nth root in its exponent form as in x 1 n displaystyle x 1 n nbsp makes it easier to manipulate powers and roots If a displaystyle a nbsp is a non negative real number a m n a m 1 n a m n a 1 n m a n m displaystyle sqrt n a m a m 1 n a m n a 1 n m sqrt n a m nbsp Every non negative number has exactly one non negative real nth root and so the rules for operations with surds involving non negative radicands a displaystyle a nbsp and b displaystyle b nbsp are straightforward within the real numbers a b n a n b n a b n a n b n displaystyle begin aligned sqrt n ab amp sqrt n a sqrt n b sqrt n frac a b amp frac sqrt n a sqrt n b end aligned nbsp Subtleties can occur when taking the nth roots of negative or complex numbers For instance 1 1 1 1 1 displaystyle sqrt 1 times sqrt 1 neq sqrt 1 times 1 1 quad nbsp but rather 1 1 i i i 2 1 displaystyle quad sqrt 1 times sqrt 1 i times i i 2 1 nbsp Since the rule a n b n a b n displaystyle sqrt n a times sqrt n b sqrt n ab nbsp strictly holds for non negative real radicands only its application leads to the inequality in the first step above Simplified form of a radical expression editA non nested radical expression is said to be in simplified form if no factor of the radicand can be written as a power greater than or equal to the index there are no fractions inside the radical sign and there are no radicals in the denominator 8 For example to write the radical expression 32 5 displaystyle textstyle sqrt 32 5 nbsp in simplified form we can proceed as follows First look for a perfect square under the square root sign and remove it 32 5 16 2 5 16 2 5 4 2 5 displaystyle sqrt frac 32 5 sqrt frac 16 cdot 2 5 sqrt 16 cdot sqrt frac 2 5 4 sqrt frac 2 5 nbsp Next there is a fraction under the radical sign which we change as follows 4 2 5 4 2 5 displaystyle 4 sqrt frac 2 5 frac 4 sqrt 2 sqrt 5 nbsp Finally we remove the radical from the denominator as follows 4 2 5 4 2 5 5 5 4 10 5 4 5 10 displaystyle frac 4 sqrt 2 sqrt 5 frac 4 sqrt 2 sqrt 5 cdot frac sqrt 5 sqrt 5 frac 4 sqrt 10 5 frac 4 5 sqrt 10 nbsp When there is a denominator involving surds it is always possible to find a factor to multiply both numerator and denominator by to simplify the expression 9 10 For instance using the factorization of the sum of two cubes 1 a 3 b 3 a 2 3 a b 3 b 2 3 a 3 b 3 a 2 3 a b 3 b 2 3 a 2 3 a b 3 b 2 3 a b displaystyle frac 1 sqrt 3 a sqrt 3 b frac sqrt 3 a 2 sqrt 3 ab sqrt 3 b 2 left sqrt 3 a sqrt 3 b right left sqrt 3 a 2 sqrt 3 ab sqrt 3 b 2 right frac sqrt 3 a 2 sqrt 3 ab sqrt 3 b 2 a b nbsp Simplifying radical expressions involving nested radicals can be quite difficult In particular denesting is not always possible and when possible it may involve advanced Galois theory Moreover when complete denesting is impossible there is no general canonical form such that the equality of two numbers can be tested by simply looking at their canonical expressions For example it is not obvious that 3 2 2 1 2 displaystyle sqrt 3 2 sqrt 2 1 sqrt 2 nbsp The above can be derived through 3 2 2 1 2 2 2 1 2 2 2 2 2 1 2 2 1 2 displaystyle sqrt 3 2 sqrt 2 sqrt 1 2 sqrt 2 2 sqrt 1 2 2 sqrt 2 sqrt 2 2 sqrt left 1 sqrt 2 right 2 1 sqrt 2 nbsp Let r p q displaystyle r p q nbsp with p and q coprime and positive integers Then r n p n q n displaystyle sqrt n r sqrt n p sqrt n q nbsp is rational if and only if both p n displaystyle sqrt n p nbsp and q n displaystyle sqrt n q nbsp are integers which means that both p and q are nth powers of some integer Infinite series editThe radical or root may be represented by the infinite series 1 x s t n 0 k 0 n 1 s k t n t n x n displaystyle 1 x frac s t sum n 0 infty frac prod k 0 n 1 s kt n t n x n nbsp with x lt 1 displaystyle x lt 1 nbsp This expression can be derived from the binomial series Computing principal roots editUsing Newton s method edit The n th root of a number A can be computed with Newton s method which starts with an initial guess x0 and then iterates using the recurrence relation x k 1 x k x k n A n x k n 1 displaystyle x k 1 x k frac x k n A nx k n 1 nbsp until the desired precision is reached For computational efficiency the recurrence relation is commonly rewritten x k 1 n 1 n x k A n 1 x k n 1 displaystyle x k 1 frac n 1 n x k frac A n frac 1 x k n 1 nbsp This allows to have only one exponentiation and to compute once for all the first factor of each term For example to find the fifth root of 34 we plug in n 5 A 34 and x0 2 initial guess The first 5 iterations are approximately x0 2 x1 2 025 x2 2 02439 7 x3 2 02439 7458 x4 2 02439 74584 99885 04251 08172 x5 2 02439 74584 99885 04251 08172 45541 93741 91146 21701 07311 8 All correct digits shown The approximation x4 is accurate to 25 decimal places and x5 is good for 51 Newton s method can be modified to produce various generalized continued fractions for the nth root For example z n x n y n x y n x n 1 n 1 y 2 x n 1 y 3 n x n 1 2 n 1 y 2 x 2 n 1 y 5 n x n 1 3 n 1 y 2 x displaystyle sqrt n z sqrt n x n y x cfrac y nx n 1 cfrac n 1 y 2x cfrac n 1 y 3nx n 1 cfrac 2n 1 y 2x cfrac 2n 1 y 5nx n 1 cfrac 3n 1 y 2x ddots nbsp Digit by digit calculation of principal roots of decimal base 10 numbers edit nbsp Pascal s Triangle showing P 4 1 4 displaystyle P 4 1 4 nbsp Building on the digit by digit calculation of a square root it can be seen that the formula used there x 20 p x c displaystyle x 20p x leq c nbsp or x 2 20 x p c displaystyle x 2 20xp leq c nbsp follows a pattern involving Pascal s triangle For the nth root of a number P n i displaystyle P n i nbsp is defined as the value of element i displaystyle i nbsp in row n displaystyle n nbsp of Pascal s Triangle such that P 4 1 4 displaystyle P 4 1 4 nbsp we can rewrite the expression as i 0 n 1 10 i P n i p i x n i displaystyle sum i 0 n 1 10 i P n i p i x n i nbsp For convenience call the result of this expression y displaystyle y nbsp Using this more general expression any positive principal root can be computed digit by digit as follows Write the original number in decimal form The numbers are written similar to the long division algorithm and as in long division the root will be written on the line above Now separate the digits into groups of digits equating to the root being taken starting from the decimal point and going both left and right The decimal point of the root will be above the decimal point of the radicand One digit of the root will appear above each group of digits of the original number Beginning with the left most group of digits do the following procedure for each group Starting on the left bring down the most significant leftmost group of digits not yet used if all the digits have been used write 0 the number of times required to make a group and write them to the right of the remainder from the previous step on the first step there will be no remainder In other words multiply the remainder by 10 n displaystyle 10 n nbsp and add the digits from the next group This will be the current value c Find p and x as follows Let p displaystyle p nbsp be the part of the root found so far ignoring any decimal point For the first step p 0 displaystyle p 0 nbsp and 0 0 1 displaystyle 0 0 1 nbsp Determine the greatest digit x displaystyle x nbsp such that y c displaystyle y leq c nbsp Place the digit x displaystyle x nbsp as the next digit of the root i e above the group of digits you just brought down Thus the next p will be the old p times 10 plus x Subtract y displaystyle y nbsp from c displaystyle c nbsp to form a new remainder If the remainder is zero and there are no more digits to bring down then the algorithm has terminated Otherwise go back to step 1 for another iteration Examples edit This section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia s quality standards The specific problem is this section does not comply with the Manual of Style Please help improve this section if you can April 2022 Learn how and when to remove this message Find the square root of 152 2756 1 2 3 4 01 52 27 56 Results Explanations 01 x 1 100 1 00 12 101 2 01 11 1 lt 100 1 00 22 101 2 01 21 01 y 1 y 100 1 00 12 101 2 01 11 1 0 1 00 52 x 2 100 1 10 22 101 2 11 21 52 lt 100 1 10 32 101 2 11 31 00 44 y 44 y 100 1 10 22 101 2 11 21 4 40 44 08 27 x 3 100 1 120 32 101 2 121 31 827 lt 100 1 120 42 101 2 121 41 07 29 y 729 y 100 1 120 32 101 2 121 31 9 720 729 98 56 x 4 100 1 1230 42 101 2 1231 41 9856 lt 100 1 1230 52 101 2 1231 51 98 56 y 9856 y 100 1 1230 42 101 2 1231 41 16 9840 9856 00 00 Algorithm terminates Answer is 12 34Find the cube root of 4192 truncated to the nearest thousandth 1 6 1 2 4 3 004 192 000 000 000 Results Explanations 004 x 1 100 1 00 13 101 3 01 12 102 3 02 11 4 lt 100 1 00 23 101 3 01 22 102 3 02 21 001 y 1 y 100 1 00 13 101 3 01 12 102 3 02 11 1 0 0 1 003 192 x 6 100 1 10 63 101 3 11 62 102 3 12 61 3192 lt 100 1 10 73 101 3 11 72 102 3 12 71 003 096 y 3096 y 100 1 10 63 101 3 11 62 102 3 12 61 216 1 080 1 800 3 096 096 000 x 1 100 1 160 13 101 3 161 12 102 3 162 11 96000 lt 100 1 160 23 101 3 161 22 102 3 162 21 077 281 y 77281 y 100 1 160 13 101 3 161 12 102 3 162 11 1 480 76 800 77 281 018 719 000 x 2 100 1 1610 23 101 3 1611 22 102 3 1612 21 18719000 lt 100 1 1610 33 101 3 1611 32 102 3 1612 31 015 571 928 y 15571928 y 100 1 1610 23 101 3 1611 22 102 3 1612 21 8 19 320 15 552 600 15 571 928 003 147 072 000 x 4 100 1 16120 43 101 3 16121 42 102 3 16122 41 3147072000 lt 100 1 16120 53 101 3 16121 52 102 3 16122 51 The desired precision is achieved The cube root of 4192 is 16 124 Logarithmic calculation edit The principal nth root of a positive number can be computed using logarithms Starting from the equation that defines r as an nth root of x namely r n x displaystyle r n x nbsp with x positive and therefore its principal root r also positive one takes logarithms of both sides any base of the logarithm will do to obtain n log b r log b x hence log b r log b x n displaystyle n log b r log b x quad quad text hence quad quad log b r frac log b x n nbsp The root r is recovered from this by taking the antilog r b 1 n log b x displaystyle r b frac 1 n log b x nbsp Note That formula shows b raised to the power of the result of the division not b multiplied by the result of the division For the case in which x is negative and n is odd there is one real root r which is also negative This can be found by first multiplying both sides of the defining equation by 1 to obtain r n x displaystyle r n x nbsp then proceeding as before to find r and using r r Geometric constructibility editThe ancient Greek mathematicians knew how to use compass and straightedge to construct a length equal to the square root of a given length when an auxiliary line of unit length is given In 1837 Pierre Wantzel proved that an nth root of a given length cannot be constructed if n is not a power of 2 11 Complex roots editEvery complex number other than 0 has n different nth roots Square roots edit nbsp The square roots of i The two square roots of a complex number are always negatives of each other For example the square roots of 4 are 2i and 2i and the square roots of i are 1 2 1 i and 1 2 1 i displaystyle tfrac 1 sqrt 2 1 i quad text and quad tfrac 1 sqrt 2 1 i nbsp If we express a complex number in polar form then the square root can be obtained by taking the square root of the radius and halving the angle r e i 8 r e i 8 2 displaystyle sqrt re i theta pm sqrt r cdot e i theta 2 nbsp A principal root of a complex number may be chosen in various ways for example r e i 8 r e i 8 2 displaystyle sqrt re i theta sqrt r cdot e i theta 2 nbsp which introduces a branch cut in the complex plane along the positive real axis with the condition 0 8 lt 2p or along the negative real axis with p lt 8 p Using the first last branch cut the principal square root z displaystyle scriptstyle sqrt z nbsp maps z displaystyle scriptstyle z nbsp to the half plane with non negative imaginary real part The last branch cut is presupposed in mathematical software like Matlab or Scilab Roots of unity edit nbsp The three 3rd roots of 1 Main article Root of unity The number 1 has n different nth roots in the complex plane namely 1 w w 2 w n 1 displaystyle 1 omega omega 2 ldots omega n 1 nbsp where w e 2 p i n cos 2 p n i sin 2 p n displaystyle omega e frac 2 pi i n cos left frac 2 pi n right i sin left frac 2 pi n right nbsp These roots are evenly spaced around the unit circle in the complex plane at angles which are multiples of 2 p n displaystyle 2 pi n nbsp For example the square roots of unity are 1 and 1 and the fourth roots of unity are 1 i displaystyle i nbsp 1 and i displaystyle i nbsp nth roots edit nbsp Geometric representation of the 2nd to 6th roots of a complex number z in polar form reif where r z and f arg z If z is real f 0 or p Principal roots are shown in black Every complex number has n different nth roots in the complex plane These are h h w h w 2 h w n 1 displaystyle eta eta omega eta omega 2 ldots eta omega n 1 nbsp where h is a single nth root and 1 w w2 wn 1 are the nth roots of unity For example the four different fourth roots of 2 are 2 4 i 2 4 2 4 and i 2 4 displaystyle sqrt 4 2 quad i sqrt 4 2 quad sqrt 4 2 quad text and quad i sqrt 4 2 nbsp In polar form a single nth root may be found by the formula r e i 8 n r n e i 8 n displaystyle sqrt n re i theta sqrt n r cdot e i theta n nbsp Here r is the magnitude the modulus also called the absolute value of the number whose root is to be taken if the number can be written as a bi then r a 2 b 2 displaystyle r sqrt a 2 b 2 nbsp Also 8 displaystyle theta nbsp is the angle formed as one pivots on the origin counterclockwise from the positive horizontal axis to a ray going from the origin to the number it has the properties that cos 8 a r displaystyle cos theta a r nbsp sin 8 b r displaystyle sin theta b r nbsp and tan 8 b a displaystyle tan theta b a nbsp Thus finding nth roots in the complex plane can be segmented into two steps First the magnitude of all the nth roots is the nth root of the magnitude of the original number Second the angle between the positive horizontal axis and a ray from the origin to one of the nth roots is 8 n displaystyle theta n nbsp where 8 displaystyle theta nbsp is the angle defined in the same way for the number whose root is being taken Furthermore all n of the nth roots are at equally spaced angles from each other If n is even a complex number s nth roots of which there are an even number come in additive inverse pairs so that if a number r1 is one of the nth roots then r2 r1 is another This is because raising the latter s coefficient 1 to the nth power for even n yields 1 that is r1 n 1 n r1n r1n As with square roots the formula above does not define a continuous function over the entire complex plane but instead has a branch cut at points where 8 n is discontinuous Solving polynomials editSee also Root finding algorithms It was once conjectured that all polynomial equations could be solved algebraically that is that all roots of a polynomial could be expressed in terms of a finite number of radicals and elementary operations However while this is true for third degree polynomials cubics and fourth degree polynomials quartics the Abel Ruffini theorem 1824 shows that this is not true in general when the degree is 5 or greater For example the solutions of the equation x 5 x 1 displaystyle x 5 x 1 nbsp cannot be expressed in terms of radicals cf quintic equation Proof of irrationality for non perfect nth power x editAssume that x n displaystyle sqrt n x nbsp is rational That is it can be reduced to a fraction a b displaystyle frac a b nbsp where a and b are integers without a common factor This means that x a n b n displaystyle x frac a n b n nbsp Since x is an integer a n displaystyle a n nbsp and b n displaystyle b n nbsp must share a common factor if b 1 displaystyle b neq 1 nbsp This means that if b 1 displaystyle b neq 1 nbsp a n b n displaystyle frac a n b n nbsp is not in simplest form Thus b should equal 1 Since 1 n 1 displaystyle 1 n 1 nbsp and n 1 n displaystyle frac n 1 n nbsp a n b n a n displaystyle frac a n b n a n nbsp This means that x a n displaystyle x a n nbsp and thus x n a displaystyle sqrt n x a nbsp This implies that x n displaystyle sqrt n x nbsp is an integer Since x is not a perfect nth power this is impossible Thus x n displaystyle sqrt n x nbsp is irrational See also editGeometric mean Shifting nth root algorithm Twelfth root of twoReferences edit Bansal R K 2006 New Approach to CBSE Mathematics IX Laxmi Publications p 25 ISBN 978 81 318 0013 3 Silver Howard A 1986 Algebra and trigonometry Englewood Cliffs NJ Prentice Hall ISBN 978 0 13 021270 2 Lesson Explainer nth Roots Integers Retrieved 22 July 2023 Definition of RADICATION www merriam webster com radication Definition of radication in English by Oxford Dictionaries Oxford Dictionaries Archived from the original on April 3 2018 Earliest Known Uses of Some of the Words of Mathematics Mathematics Pages by Jeff Miller Retrieved 2008 11 30 Hardy G H 1921 A Course of Pure Mathematics 3rd ed Cambridge 1 13 Quadratic Surds 1 14 pp 19 23 McKeague Charles P 2011 Elementary algebra Cengage Learning p 470 ISBN 978 0 8400 6421 9 B F Caviness R J Fateman Simplification of Radical Expressions Proceedings of the 1976 ACM Symposium on Symbolic and Algebraic Computation p 329 Richard Zippel Simplification of Expressions Involving Radicals Journal of Symbolic Computation 1 189 210 1985 doi 10 1016 S0747 7171 85 80014 6 Wantzel M L 1837 Recherches sur les moyens de reconnaitre si un Probleme de Geometrie peut se resoudre avec la regle et le compas Journal de Mathematiques Pures et Appliquees 1 2 366 372 External links edit nbsp Look up surd in Wiktionary the free dictionary nbsp Look up radical in Wiktionary the free dictionary Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Nth root amp oldid 1218601351, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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