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- Path: sparky!uunet!gatech!rpi!uwm.edu!ogicse!das-news.harvard.edu!das-news!smith
- From: smith@gramian.harvard.edu (Steven Smith)
- Newsgroups: sci.math
- Subject: Re: Another GRE question for you folks
- Message-ID: <SMITH.92Oct16103010@gramian.harvard.edu>
- Date: 16 Oct 92 15:30:10 GMT
- Article-I.D.: gramian.SMITH.92Oct16103010
- References: <1992Oct12.003139.2290@merrimack.edu>
- <SMITH.92Oct12141247@gramian.harvard.edu>,<1992Oct12.221420.19382@galois.mit.edu>
- <1992Oct15.195539.11357@news.cs.brandeis.edu>
- Sender: usenet@das.harvard.edu (Network News)
- Organization: Harvard Robotics Lab, Harvard University
- Lines: 30
- In-Reply-To: travis@binah.cc.brandeis.edu's message of 15 Oct 92 19:55:39 GMT
-
- travis@binah.cc.brandeis.edu (Leopold Travis) writes:
- > (John C. Baez) writes:
- > >smith@gramian.harvard.edu
- > >(Steven Smith) writes:
- > >
- > >>Did the test really say ``the square root of 2,'' or did it use a
- > >>surd, i.e., _
- > >> \/2 ?
- > >>
- > >>By convention, the surd notation denotes the positive real root of a
- > >>positive number. If the ETS used a surd, their answer is correct, and
- > >>they can avoid yet another damaging article on the front page of the
- > >>Wall Street Journal.
- > >>
- > >>If they said ``the square root of 2'' or ``2^(1/2),'' they are
- > >>referring to a number x such that x^2 = 2, and the correct answer is D
- > >>by the reasons you stated.
- > >
- > >Surely if they say THE square root of 2 they are hinting that they believe
- > >there is a unique one, i.e., that they are forgetting the negative one.
- >
- > Absolutely. If they were referring to some number x such that x^2=2,
- > they would have said _a_ square root of 2.
-
- I thought of this before posting, but it seemed too pedantic to
- mention . . . Anyway, the answer is still D (not enough information)
- because it requires guessing the branch ETS desires (of course the
- choice of the positive root seems likely, but is not necessary).
-
- Steven Smith
-