Question

What are the solutions to the equation x2 = 9? Explain why is more than one solution to the equation.

Answer 1

ANSWER

$x = - 3 \: \: or \: \: x = 3$

The degree is two so it must have more than one solution.

EXPLANATION

The given equation is

${x}^{2} = 9$

Let us use the square root method to solve this equation.

Since the degree of x is two, the fundamental theorem of algebra says it must have 2 roots.

We take square root to obtain,

$x = \pm \sqrt{9}$

$x = \pm3$

Split the plus or minus sign to obtain,

$x = - 3 \: \: or \: \: x = 3$