How to Use square root in a Sentence

square root

noun
Definition of square rootnext
  • The square root of 9 is 3.
  • If the primes are close then a is close to the square root of N.
    — Dan Goodin, Ars Technica, 14 Mar. 2022
  • The golden ratio, meanwhile, can be written as one-half of the sum of 1 plus the square root of 5.
    — Elizabeth Landau, Smithsonian Magazine, 25 Mar. 2020
  • Now sing these lyrics: Neg-a-tive b, plus or minus The square root of b squared mi-nus four a c All!
    — Patrick Honner, Quanta Magazine, 24 Mar. 2023
  • The next step in weirdness leads to the imaginary numbers like i, which is the symbol for the square root of -1.
    — George Johnson, Discover Magazine, 1 May 2013
  • Similarly, a root of x2 − 2, the square root of 2, is formed using the eighth roots of unity.
    — Quanta Magazine, 25 May 2021
  • We weight polls using a function that involves the square root of its sample size.
    — G. Elliott Morris, ABC News, 9 Oct. 2023
  • Coffee and tea shops per capita is by the square root of the population.
    — Shayndi Raice, WSJ, 14 Nov. 2018
  • Ullisch’s solution is not something simple like the square root of 2.
    — Quanta Magazine, 9 Dec. 2020
  • Taking the square root of −1 led to an entirely new system of arithmetic.
    — Quanta Magazine, 18 Nov. 2020
  • This allows guessing the value a by starting with the square root of N and then incrementing the guess by one each round.
    — Dan Goodin, Ars Technica, 14 Mar. 2022
  • Deutsche's Ryan, on the other hand, prefers a more unusual shape: the square root symbol recovery.
    — Anne Sraders, Fortune, 7 June 2020
  • Many people may have an irrational number in mind, such as pi (π), Euler’s number (e) or the square root of 2.
    — Manon Bischoff, Scientific American, 3 Mar. 2023
  • Math has many important constants that give the discipline structure, like pi and i, the imaginary number equal to the square root of -1.
    — Avery Thompson, Popular Mechanics, 2 Mar. 2021
  • Suppose the calculator app wasn’t devised to do square roots.
    — Lance Eliot, Forbes, 17 July 2023
  • But people tried to solve cubic equations and, in the process of doing that, invented the square root of negative numbers.
    — Gemma Tarlach, Discover Magazine, 25 Feb. 2015
  • Even though the $16 contribution is four times the $4 contribution, its square root is only twice as much.
    — Puja Ohlhaver, Wired, 1 Sep. 2020
  • To make this work, the mass of the tachyon has to be imaginary, but in the mathematical sense: Its mass would be multiplied by a factor of the square root of negative one.
    — Paul M. Sutter, Discover Magazine, 21 Feb. 2023
  • Complex numbers have two parts, one real and one imaginary, the latter of which relates to the imaginary number i, defined as the square root of −1.
    — Kevin Hartnett, Quanta Magazine, 13 Jan. 2022
  • The 1996 algorithm required a number of computational steps that was roughly proportional to the square root of the number of nodes in the graph.
    — Quanta Magazine, 15 Sep. 2020
  • To solve the matching problem classically, Alice has to send Bob an amount of information proportional to the square root of the number of balls.
    — Kevin Hartnett, WIRED, 23 Dec. 2018
  • This distinguishes it again from more familiar irrational numbers like the square root of two (whose second power is equal to two).
    — Dan Rockmore /, NBC News, 14 Mar. 2018
  • The income points in the study apply to single-person households, the authors note, but can be determined for families by multiplying the figure by the square root of a household size.
    — Josh Hafner, USA TODAY, 26 Feb. 2018
  • One of the most surprising and important mathematical findings is the irrationality of the square root of 2 (√2)—the length of the diagonal of a square with sides that are one unit long.
    — Jean-Paul Delahaye, Scientific American, 28 Apr. 2021
  • Fortune’s Anne Srader explores the possibilities–U, check mark, Nike swoosh, square root symbol, etc.–here.
    — David Meyer, Fortune, 8 June 2020
  • Every number has two square roots, one positive and one negative, and a similar doubling can occur in physics equations.
    — Andrew Crumey, WSJ, 8 Dec. 2017
  • Imagine trying to puzzle out a square root by hand rather than using a calculator—the computing power majorly boosts your chances of success.
    — Caroline Delbert, Popular Mechanics, 5 Apr. 2021
  • Mathematically, this is accomplished by taking the square root of each state contribution as a first step.
    — Puja Ohlhaver, Wired, 1 Sep. 2020
  • Calculate profit-margin and square root functions in addition to arithmetic basics, and view your results on an 8-digit display.
    — Popular Science, 19 Mar. 2020
  • For instance, if a user enters a prompt asking for square roots, the generative AI could generate programming code to do so, and then invoke or run the code correspondingly.
    — Lance Eliot, Forbes, 17 July 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'square root.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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