Solving Radical Equations

A radical equation is an equation in which a variable is contained within a radical (square root, cube root, etc.).

To isolate a square root, you can move all other terms to the opposite side of the equation and then square both sides to eliminate the radical.

x = 10

x = 16.

It means that there are no values for the variable that satisfy the equation, often due to taking the square root of a negative number.

x = 25.

No solution, because the square root of a number cannot be negative.

x = 13.

Squaring both sides can eliminate a square root, but it may introduce extraneous solutions that need to be checked.