How do you simplify -sqrt(144)?

1 Answer
MathFact-orials.blogspot.com
Jun 18, 2016

The negative is really -1 times the square root, so do the square root first, multiply by -1 and get
(-1)(12)=-12

Explanation:

Let's start with the original:

-sqrt144

The negative sign is really a -1 multiplying the square root, so let's write the expression this way:

(-1)(sqrt144)

We can now take the square root of 144:

(-1)(12)=-12

I think this question hinged on the fact that "you can't take the square root of a negative number" (which in a higher level class you will learn that you can). A question with the negative in the square root would look like this:

sqrt(-144)

And just for fun let's show what you do in this case:

sqrt(-144)=sqrt(144)sqrt(-1)=12sqrt(-1)

And in that advanced class you will learn that sqrt(-1)=i, so the answer becomes

sqrt(-144)=sqrt(144)sqrt(-1)=12sqrt(-1)=12i

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