Square root of 12-5x equals 5?

Answer 1

To solve this kind of equation, you might square both sides. Careful, though, since squaring can sometimes introduce additional solutions, that are NOT solutions to the original equation; therefore, you must check each solution with the original equation.

For example, assuming you mean square root of (12-5x) = 5:

root(12-5x) = 5

Squaring both sides:

12-5x = 25

-5x = 13

x = -13/5

But wait, since squaring can sometimes introduce additional solutions, we need to check if -13/5 is really a solution. To check if -13/5 is a real solution or not, we'll put it in the original equation and see if it works:

sqrt(12-5(-13/5))=5

sqrt(12+13)=5

sqrt(25)=5

5=5

Yes, it's correct.