Perfect Squares

and Perfect
Cubes
Standard EE2

Standard
EE2. Use square root and cube
root symbols to represent
solutions to equations of the
form x2 = p and x3 = p, where p
is a positive rational number.
Evaluate square roots of small
perfect squares and cube roots
of small perfect cubes.

Squares and Roots

So what if we said that ?

Square Roots

Taking the square root is the

opposite of squaring a
number.
If then the square root of .
The symbol for square root is
the radical:

You Try!

Theres a Catch

Every number (except 0) has

two square roots.
equals 4, but also equals 4!
When you see , it means the
positive root.

Fill In Your Cheat Sheet

The symbol is the radical and means to take
the positive square root
The square root is the number you can
multiply times itself to get the radicand.
The square root equals the side length of a
square with a given area.
Every number has two square roots:
The positive root or the principal root
The negative root
The number under the radical cant be
negative.
Perfect squares have integer roots.

Cube Roots

How about this?

Remember that


We
also have a cube root!

The little 3 is called an index, and

it tells you what root were taking.
It tells you that we want a number
used as a factor 3 times to make 8.
This is NOT 3 divided into 8!

Cube Roots

Fill in Your Cheat Sheet

The 3 is called the index and tells you
which root to take
The cube root is the number you can multiply
as a factor three times (or cube) to get the
radicand.
The cube root equals the side length of a
cube with a given volume.
Cube roots can be negative. (Three
negatives will still be a negative!) Therefore
the sign matters and the radicand has only
one root.
Perfect cubes have integer roots.

 You need to learn the squares

and cubes on the orange
sheet, going in both
directions. (You can name the
square or the square root)