Question

Why is the square root of a negative
number undefined?

Answer 1

what number?

Answer 2

The square root is defined for all numbers.

Answer 3

Negative, sorry!

Answer 4

It's undefined for real numbers, but you actually use roots of negatives to define something called complex numbers.

Answer 5

square root is the opposite of squaring a number

if you square a number, your answer is always positive and never negative

which is why square roots of negative numbers are undefined

also because calculators are unable to compute imaginary numbers

Answer 6

So that
\[ \sqrt{-1} = i \]
This gives rise to very interesting mathematics, here is a link if you want to learn more:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complex_numbers

Answer 7

Thanks!!!!!

Answer 8

No problem, feel free to ask anything else if you're curious =)