My Math Forum question on homework. i need help.

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 August 25th, 2008, 01:35 PM #1 Newbie   Joined: Aug 2008 Posts: 3 Thanks: 0 question on homework. i need help. i need to translate the following question into a mathematical expression. can someone help? the opposite of 3 squared.
 August 25th, 2008, 07:30 PM #2 Newbie   Joined: Aug 2008 Posts: 8 Thanks: 0 Re: question on homework. i need help. Opposite of three squared would be ?x That being the root sign with a three over the little notch on the left.
 August 26th, 2008, 05:29 AM #3 Senior Member   Joined: May 2008 From: York, UK Posts: 1,300 Thanks: 0 Re: question on homework. i need help. I'm not entirely sure what you mean - 3 squared is equal to 9, but the word 'opposite' doesn't have a well-defined meaning when applied to pure numbers. It could be -9, 1/9, even something like $\sqrt3$ depending on the context. If you can give a little more info on what the problem is, it might become clearer.
August 26th, 2008, 12:59 PM   #4
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Re: question on homework. i need help.

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 Originally Posted by mattpi I'm not entirely sure what you mean - 3 squared is equal to 9, but the word 'opposite' doesn't have a well-defined meaning when applied to pure numbers.
Not disagreeing, but I think she means "opposite operation". As you suggest, it's not clear. So it might have been a search for the [positive, or "principal"] square root.

August 26th, 2008, 01:00 PM   #5
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Re: question on homework. i need help.

Quote:
 Originally Posted by [Ampharos ]Opposite of three squared would be ?x
Why [color=#FF0000]cube[/color] root?

 August 27th, 2008, 10:45 AM #6 Global Moderator     Joined: Nov 2006 From: UTC -5 Posts: 16,046 Thanks: 938 Math Focus: Number theory, computational mathematics, combinatorics, FOM, symbolic logic, TCS, algorithms Re: question on homework. i need help. "Opposite" is often used for the additive inverse; if that's the case, the opposite of x is -x. The problem is still unclear even if that;'s the correct interpretation of opposite, though: is it (the opposite of 3) squared, or the opposite of (3 squared)?
August 27th, 2008, 05:16 PM   #7
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Re: question on homework. i need help.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave
Quote:
 Originally Posted by [Ampharos ]Opposite of three squared would be ?x
Why [color=#FF0000]cube[/color] root?
Whoops.
I got mixed up when three got involved. xP

That'd be Just regular root three then.

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