ShmoopTube

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Here's your shmoop du jour, brought to you by the Square Root Symbol.

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Not to be confused with the Square Root Beer Symbol.

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If 2 times the quantity 3x + 4 = -16,

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then the square root of x squared is equal to what?

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We need to start by getting x by itself in the first equation...

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We can divide both sides of the equation by 2 to get 3x + 4 = -8.

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Subtract 4 from both sides... 3x = -12.

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Divide both sides by 3 and we have x = -4.

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Now, we can plug -4 into the second equation...

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The square root of -4 squared is the same as the square root of 16...

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which is just 4. So we have our answer.

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That's using our head.

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