What is a real root?

Answer 1

In the context of algebra, the term real root refers to the solution to an equation which consists of a real number rather than an imaginary or complex number (a complex number being a combination of real and imaginary numbers). You may recall that any given equation will have the same number of roots (or solutions) as the highest exponent in the equation, so that if you are dealing with x squared, you have two roots. Often there would be one real root and one imaginary root. In general, the real roots are more useful, although there are some circumstances in which imaginary or complex roots are also relevant to what you are doingl.