Larry Smith brings up another math thing that has changed in my
lifetime. When I went to school, sqrt(25) was plus-or-minus five.
Larry says it is now just plus five. My daughter concurs with Larry.
Like I said, I'm getting too old.
By the way. Why is this? Is it a calculator thing? Sometimes I think
math definitions are driven by what calculators do. I remember doing
sqrt on a slide rule (and also with pencil and paper using
newton-raphson) and my HS math teacher would take off a point if we
didn't put the +- sign in front of "the answer."
Michael D. Edmiston, Ph.D.
Professor of Physics and Chemistry
Chair of Sciences
Bluffton College
Bluffton, OH 45817
(419)-358-3270
edmiston@bluffton.edu
This posting is the position of the writer, not that of SUNY-BSC, NAU or the AAPT.