## anonymous 5 years ago okay really confused now!!! 31^2=square root of 177+b^2????? huh???!!!

1. anonymous

Is this the original problem?

2. anonymous

yes I typed it right from the book were working

3. anonymous

Ok

4. anonymous

So what is 31^2?

5. anonymous

31^2=961 961-177 = 784 sqrt(784)=28 b=28

6. anonymous

Then once you figure that out, set both sides to the power of 2 , to get rid of the sqrt sign

7. anonymous

Lol, ^ what he said then.

8. anonymous

lol ok

9. anonymous

Wait hold on.. is the 177+b^2 all inside the parenthesis? or seperate?

10. anonymous

ok, sunshine, do you know what Pythagorean theorem is used for?

11. anonymous

Is the problem like this $31^2 = \sqrt(177)+b^2 or 31^2=\sqrt(177+b^2)$

12. anonymous

but don't you square root the 177 first???

13. anonymous

Depends. That is why you need to tell me which one the book is saying. Is 177 the only number inside the square root?

14. anonymous

yes

15. anonymous

Okay based on what you said the problem is it is similar to what bpw12 did: 31^2=961 961-sqrt177 = 947.696 b= sqrt(947.696)=30.785 b=28

16. anonymous

ok ill retype the problem exactly [31^2=sqrt{177}+b^2

17. anonymous

Yeah, then it is what I said to do then.

18. anonymous

ok do i square root the 177 at the end???

19. anonymous

Nope. After you subtract sqrt {177} from both sides you have: 31^2-sqrt{177}=b^2 947.696=b^2 sqrt(947.696)=sqrt(b^2) Now you may or may not learned this next part, but technically there will be two solutions for b now that I think about (sorry mind is being slow tonight). So b=30.785 or b=-30.785 P.S. Ignore the b=28 from my post from like 8 minutes ago

20. anonymous

ok I'm skipping this prob ill ask my teacher tomorrow