How do you estimate sqrt14.5?

1 Answer
George C.
Feb 19, 2017

sqrt(14.5) ~~ 3.8

Explanation:

3^2 = 9 < 14.5 < 16 = 4^2

So sqrt(14.5) is somewhere between 3 and 4.

To be more specific we can linearly interpolate - approximating the section of the parabola y = x^2 between (3, 9) and (4, 16) using a straight line...

(14.5-9)/(16-9) = 5.5/7 = 0.7bar(857142) ~~ 0.8

So sqrt(14.5) ~~ 3+0.8 = 3.8

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