Rough root
Which of these options is closest to this square root?
Problem
Which of these is closest to $\sqrt{\dfrac{10 000}{2012}}$?
a) 1.9
b) 2.2
c) 2.5
d) 2.7
b) 2.2
c) 2.5
d) 2.7
This problem is taken from the World Mathematics Championships
Student Solutions
Answer: 2.2
Squaring the options
$\dfrac{10 000}{2012}\approx\dfrac{10000}{2000}=5$, so $\sqrt{\dfrac{10000}{2012}}\approx\sqrt5$
(We should really check how good this approximation is. See below (or click here) for comparison).
So one of the options should square to a number close to $5$. Squaring them gives:
$1.9^2=3.61$ which is too small
$2.2^2=4.84$ which is too small
$2.5^2=6.25$ which is too big
so $2.7^2$ will definitely be too big.
$2.2$ is too small and $2.5$ is too big. To find which is closer to $\sqrt5$, test a number in between.
If $2.3$ is too big, then we will know that $\sqrt5$ is between $2.2$ and $2.3$, so it is definitely closer to $2.2$ than to $2.5$.
$2.3^2=2.3\times2+2.3\times0.3=4.6+0.69=5.29$, which is too big.
So $2.2$ is the closest.
Estimating the square root
$10 000=100^2$
$\dfrac{100}?\times\dfrac{100}?=\dfrac{10000}{?\times?}$ where $?\times?$ is close to $2012$
$40^2=1600$ and $50^2=2500$. Try $45^2=2025$
$\therefore\dfrac{100}{45}\times\dfrac{100}{45}=\dfrac{10000}{2025}\approx\dfrac{10000}{2012}$
(We should really check how close this approximation is. See below (or click here) for comparison)
So $\sqrt{\dfrac{10000}{2012}}\approx\dfrac{100}{45}=\dfrac{20}{9}=2.\dot2$
So $2.2$ is the closest.
How close are our approximations?
The difference between $\dfrac{10 000}{2012}$ and $5$ is:
The difference between $\dfrac{10 000}{2012}$ and $\dfrac{10000}{2025}$ is:
So the square of $2.\dot2$ is too large, by up to $0.04$.
We can write this as $2.\dot2^2-c^2<0.04$, where $c$ is the exact value of $\sqrt{\dfrac{10000}{2012}}$
We can factorise $2.\dot2^2-c^2$ as the difference of two squares:
$2.\dot2^2-c^2=(2.\dot2+c)(2.\dot2-c)$, so $(2.\dot2+c)(2.\dot2-c)<0.04$
$2.\dot2-c$ must be very close to $0$, because the product is close to $0$, and $(2.\dot2+c)$ is not particularly close to $0$. This is good, because if $2.\dot2$ is a good approximation, then $2.\dot2-c$ is close to $0$.
In fact, $(2.\dot2+c)$ must be more than $2$, since $c$ is positive. So $2.\dot2-c$ must less than $0.02$, to give a product of less than $0.04$ (since $2\times0.02=0.04$).
So $2.\dot2$ is an over-estimation by less than $0.02$, which means that the true value of $c$ is somewhere between $2.\dot2-0.02=2.20\dot2$ and $2.\dot2$. So $2.2$ is defiitely the closest of the options. Our approximation was actually far better than the question required.