Square Roots and Exponents

Date: 2/2/96 at 10:58:40
From: Philip
Subject: square root and power to 7

Hi there.

I have a couple of math problems.  My teacher tries to 
explain these questions but he gets me confused! :)

What is a "square root" of something?  

What are "powers to 7"?

Thanxs!

Date: 4/29/96 at 21:24:17
From: Doctor Jodi
Subject: square root and power to 7

Hi there! 

The idea of square roots originally comes from geometry:
if you have a square with area 9, how long is each of its sides?

Since the area of a square is side*side, the sides of this square 
are each 3 units long.  So 3 is called the square root of 9 since 
3*3=9.  Does this make sense?

Powers are a related idea.  When you raise something to a power, 
you multiply it times itself a certain number of times.

For example, 2 to the power of 7 means 2*2*2*2*2*2*2
(2 multiplied by itself 7 times).

I hope this is a little bit clearer now... Write us back if you need 
more help!

-Doctor Jodi,  The Math Forum