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Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!watmath!ljdickey
From: ljdickey@watmath.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.math
Subject: sqrt
Message-ID: <5738@watmath.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 12-Sep-83 07:35:38 EDT
Article-I.D.: watmath.5738
Posted: Mon Sep 12 07:35:38 1983
Date-Received: Mon, 12-Sep-83 14:22:26 EDT
Sender: ljdickey@watmath.UUCP
Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario
Lines: 18

The   SQRT  function is defined to be non-negative.
Thus the assertion that something negative is "THE square root"
of a number is not the same as saying that the negative number 
squares to a number.  To be more concrete, we can have
 
         -4    squared is                  16
but
         -4    is not the suare root of    16.
 
This is something which confused a famous psychological tester
at the University of Wisconsin who sold his employment screening
quiz to various employers who wanted not to employ dummies.  
Unfortunately one of his questions also screened out people with
sound mathematical training.
-- 
  Lee Dickey, University of Waterloo.  (ljdickey@watmath.UUCP)
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