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Applications of Linear Functions
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Find the closest perfect square to the radicand.
4
A perfect square is a number that can be written with an exponent of 2, where the square root is a whole number.
sqrt(a^2)=a, for any non-negative numbera
sqrt(LHS)
Calculate root
We know that sqrt(15) is somewhere between 3 and 4. In order to estimate it to the nearest whole number, we have to know which perfect square is closer. We will do this by finding the difference between 9 and 15, and 15 and 16. 9-6 ←15+1 →16 We found that 15 is closer to 16 than to 9. Therefore, sqrt(15) is closer to sqrt(16) than to sqrt(9). This means that the value of sqrt(15), to the nearest whole number, is 4.