What is the negative square root of 81?
Understand the Problem
The question is asking for the negative square root of the number 81. The square root of 81 is 9, and therefore, the negative square root would be -9.
Answer
The negative square root of 81 is $-9$.
Answer for screen readers
The negative square root of 81 is $-9$.
Steps to Solve
-
Identify the square root To find the negative square root, we first need to identify the square root of the number 81. The square root can be represented as: $$ \sqrt{81} = 9 $$
-
Incorporate the negative sign Since we are looking for the negative square root, we will apply the negative sign to the square root we found: $$ -\sqrt{81} = -9 $$
The negative square root of 81 is $-9$.
More Information
The square root of a number refers to a value that, when multiplied by itself, gives the original number. In the case of 81, both 9 and -9 are valid square roots, but here we specifically looked for the negative one.
Tips
A common mistake is to forget that both positive and negative values are square roots of a positive number. Always remember that the square root symbol can indicate both.