who think of the word square root?

Answer 1

Square root comes from two words (obviously): Square, and Root:

What is a square root?

well, the square root of 4 is 2. That is because 2^2 = 4. But you can say this in another way:

2 is a root of the function x^2-4.

Aha, there is that word Root.

Actually for any function f and any value c such that f(c)=0, c is called a root of the function.

So, let's look at the roots of the function x^2-a. Well, we set the function equal to 0 and solve:
x^2-a = 0, so x^2 = a and x = ±√a.

Therefore the square root of a number is always the root of polynomial of degree 2. But polynomials of degree 2 are called quadratics because they deal with a square. So it is a root of a "square" function, and thus a square root.

Answer 2

Mathematics has not always been done using the symbols and notation we have today. The ancient Greeks did not develop a number writing system to express quantities. As a result, their understanding of mathematics was entirely expressed in the language of geometry--that is to say, magnitude was expressed as the length of a line, or the area of a figure, or the volume of a solid. Addition was expressed by joining lengths of lines, and multiplication was expressed by finding areas. So the Greek understanding of the expression x^2 was the relationship between the side length of a square and its area. This is where the term "square" comes from. The word "root" generically refers to something that is the source, origin, or progenitor of something else; e.g., the root of a tree, or the root cause of an event. So when applied to the term "square," we see that the "square root" refers to the value that generates the square; that is, the value of x for which x^2 equals a given number.

Incidentally, it is for this reason that the term "root" is used to describe the values of x for which a polynomial f(x) equals 0, not the other way around.

Answer 3

someone who realized that if the quantity represented an area... you could make it into a square... and then it's measure would be a number multiplied by itself.

Answer 4

someone who had too much time on thier hands