Help with Square root bedmas question?

[Yosuis]

So I'm just a little confused how to solve for a)



The answer is c) but I don't understand the correct order for solving a) should I first calculate the square root of 300 then divide by 3. What's the order? I know it should give me an irrational number. The calculator gives me a rational 10 for some reason. Thank you!

 

[stapel]

How many factors of 3 are in 300?

 

[Dr.Peterson]

So I'm just a little confused how to solve for a)

View attachment 34652

The answer is c) but I don't understand the correct order for solving a) should I first calculate the square root of 300 then divide by 3. What's the order? I know it should give me an irrational number. The calculator gives me a rational 10 for some reason. Thank you!

As I understand it, you know it's irrational, but your calculator gave the value 10. This means that you entered it incorrectly.

Please tell us what kind of calculator you used, and what you entered; the correct manner of entry depends on the calculator. But, yes, however you do it, you should be dividing [imath]\sqrt{300}[/imath] by 3.

 

[Otis]

should I first calculate the square root of 300 then divide by 3.

Hi Yosuis. We're sorry for the delay, but the forum was hacked/vandalized. Responses to new members have been delayed.

Unless your class uses calculators for everything, I'd expect that they want you to first simplify the square root (not evaluate it). Then, write the simplified radical over 3, to see that the given expression does not represent a Rational number.

\(\displaystyle \frac{\sqrt{300}}{3} = \frac{\sqrt{3}\cdot\sqrt{100}}{3} =\frac{10\sqrt{3}}{3}\)


[imath]\;[/imath]

 

[The Highlander]

The calculator gives me a rational 10 for some reason.

Hi Yosuis,

I suspect that you simply ‘forgot’ to square the \(\displaystyle \sqrt{3}\) at the end of your input sequence.

As you can now see, from the help provided above, \(\displaystyle \sqrt{300}=10×\sqrt{3}\), therefore, \(\displaystyle \sqrt{300}÷\sqrt{3}\) (rather than \(\displaystyle \sqrt{3}^2\)) would, indeed, give you an answer of 10 on your calculator.

Hope that clears up your little mystery for you.