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Even and Odd Roots of Negatives Values...

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johnkim4
 Post subject: Even and Odd Roots of Negatives Values...
 Post Posted: Fri Mar 04, 2011 5:57 am 
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Course Students


Posts: 4
Why is it possible to take an odd root of a negative number, but not possible to take an even root of a negative?
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jnelson0612
 Post subject: Re: Even and Odd Roots of Negatives Values...
 Post Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2011 7:03 am 
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ManhattanGMAT Staff


Posts: 1857
John, I can cube a -3 and reach a result of -27. Thus, I can take a cube (or third) root of -27 and get -3. That is mathematically possible.

The GMAT will never have you take an even root of a negative number because such a number is impossible to attain. For example, can you think of any number that when it is squared will give you -16? No! To get -16 I must have an odd and an even number multiplied together. There is no one number I can square that will give me this result.

I hope this helps!

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Jamie Nelson
ManhattanGMAT Instructor
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