Asker: Michael, 10 years old
Answer
The answer is simple: on the side of a square.
Of course, this answer sounds funny, just like the question, but it’s actually true. Suppose someone tells you that a square has an area of 81 square meters and challenges you to say how big the side of that square is. Then you have to search for a number such that the square (or square) of that number is equal to the area. In this simple case you will immediately answer: 9 meters, because a square of 9 meters by 9 has an area of 9 times 9, which is 81 square meters. That search for the side of the square, that is precisely the search for the square root.
Answered by
prof.dr. Jean Paul VAN BENDEGEM
logic, philosophy of mathematics and philosophy of science
Free University of Brussels
Pleinlaan 2 1050 Ixelles
http://www.vub.ac.be/
Pleinlaan 2 1050 Ixelles
http://www.vub.ac.be/
.