Many times in working science problems, you will have to take the root of a number in scientific notation. By far the most common root taken will be the second root, or square root. taking a square root and raising something to the second power are opposing operations. They "undo" each other. Therefore, since four taken to the second power is 16, the square root of 16 is 4.
As always the easiest way to find a square root of a number is to use the appropriate button on your calculator. However, if you have a calculator that does square roots, but doesn't do scientific notation, there is a procedure.
Use you calculator to find the square root of 4 X 1010, and see if you can guess at the procedure. Then check your answer and move on.
Questions? Ask the designer, Jim Heath
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