Square Roots and the

Pythagorean Theorem
The symbol for Square root is called a radical….

Inside the radical you put the number that you wish to take
the square root of. For example:

25
The square root of 25 is 5. How does this work? What
number times itself twice equals 25?? 5 times 5 equals 25.

What about the square root of 9? 9

What times itself two times equals 9?? 3 times 3.. so the
square root of 9 is 3.
A number that has a square root which is a whole number is
called a “perfect square.” 25 is one example because 25 = 5x5.
Here is a table of some common perfect square numbers and
their square roots.
Perfect Square Square Root
1 1
4 2
9 3
16 4
25 5
36 6
49 7 And so on…...
 What about non perfect
squares?
We know that 4 is a perfect square and that 9
is also a perfect square. What about 5??
That is not a perfect square. We need to
know how to express that as a decimal.

In the SOL Test you will be required to give a

decimal approximation to a non-perfect
square root. Ex.
5
 Non-Perfect Squares

5 What you will have to do here is use your

graphing/scientific calculator. For a TI-83 you
would use the following key sequence.
To find 5 you would press the following key
sequence…
1) 2nd
2) x2
3) 5 ( or any number you want
the square root of)
4) enter
Try to do this now…...
 Answer
When you enter the square root of 5 in the calculator
you should get an answer of 2.236067977… What
you will be required to do now is round your answer
to a certain decimal place.
The tenths place is the number right after the
decimal. After that is the hundredths and the
thousands place.
If you are asked to round to the tenths place you
would look at the number, which is 2, and the number
directly after that, which is 3. Since 3 is not greater
than or equal to 5 you leave the 2 alone and your
answer would be 2.2
 Rounding
Perhaps we got an answer of 2.36848 for a solution
and we wanted to round to the tenths place.
The number in the tenths place is 3 and the number
after that is 6. Since 6 is greater than or equal to 5
we have to round the 3 up to a 4. Our answer would
become 2.4
2.36848 rounded to the tenths place becomes 2.4
What happens if you round 2.36848 to the
hundredths place?
It becomes 2.37
 Try These
Find the square roots, round to the
tenths place.

45 66
102
 Solutions
45 = 6.70820 rounded to the tenths place is 6.7

102 = 10.099504 rounded to the tenths place is 10.1

66 = 8.124038 rounded to the tenths place is 8.1

 Products of Square Roots
Now we want to multiply two square
roots together.

Try this..

7⋅ 7 =7
Products of Square Roots

5⋅ 5 =5
7 ⋅ 6 = 6.4807
The distance, in miles, from an observation tower h feet above
the ground to the horizon is d= 3h . How far a
2
distance, to the nearest tenth of a foot, can you see if the tower
is 77 feet high?

Solution: we must substitute 77 for the height of the tower in the

formula:
3 ⋅ 77
2

When this is calculated in the calculator you get 10.74709263 and

must round it to the nearest tenth. 10.7 miles.
A right triangle is a triangle which has one right angle. The
two sides which meet at the right angle are called the legs and
the side which is opposite the right angle is called the
hypotenuse.

hypotenuse
leg

leg
You can see that the hypotenuse is the longest side of the
triangle.
Usually we label the legs a and b and the hypotenuse c.

c
a

b
In geometry we learn that there is a special relationship
between these three sides of the triangle. The sum of the
squares of the lengths of the legs equals the square of the
hypotenuse. This leads to the equation……

a +b = c
2 2 2
leg 2 + leg 2 = hypotenuse 2
This only works in right triangles….
We can use this theorem to check and see if sides of certain
lengths will make a right triangle.
For example, if you get a triangle with side lengths of 3cm,
4cm, and 5cm: Will it make a right triangle?
Well if it did, then the side of 5 cm would have to be the hypotenuse, c,
because the hypotenuse has to be the longest side. Let’s use the
pythagorean theorem and substitute the numbers to see if we get a true
statement. We can match the 3cm and 4cm with a and b in any order:

a +b = c
2 2 2

3 +4 =5
2 2 2 This is a true
statement so the
9 + 16 = 25 triangle is a right
triangle.
25 = 25
If we substitute the given values from the problem we get...
P=10
S=6

g
We can set up the pythagorean theorem equation:
leg 2 + leg 2 = hypotenuse 2
We must solve the equation
g 2 + s2 = p 2 using both old and new
g 2 + 62 = 102 techniques to find the value of g.
g 2 + 36 = 100
g 2 + 36 − 36 = 100 − 36
g 2 = 64
g 2 = 64
g=8
Try This:
Find the length of ‘g’ in the right triangle below:

13
12

g
Try This Solution:
Using the pythagorean theorem we start with

leg 2 + leg 2 = hypotenuse 2

g + 12 = 13
2 2 2
13
12
g + 144 = 169
2

g 2 + 144 − 144 = 169 − 144

g
g = 25
2

g 2 = 25
g =5