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The Square Root Trick

TRY IT:

Solve  a^2 - 3 = 0

Here's a harder one:

Solve   

Get the  x^2 alone...  which will take a little more work:

25x^2 - 7 = 0 ... add 7 to both sides, which gives 25x^2 = 7 ... divide both sides by 25, which gives x^2 = 7/25 ... take the square root of both sides, which gives sqrt( x^2 ) = +/- sqrt( 7/25 ) which gives x = +/- sqrt( 7/25 ) = +/- sqrt( 7 ) / sqrt( 25 ) = +/- sqrt( 7 ) / 5 

{ - sqrt( 7 ) / 5 , sqrt( 7 ) / 5 }

YOUR TURN:

Solve  8x^2 - 6 = 0