A root is the opposite of a power. The root of a number is another number that can be multiplied by itself to get the first number. As 2 squared is 4, then a square root of 4 must be 2: \(2^2 = 4\).

The ancient Greeks wanted to believe that the universe could be described in its entirety using only whole numbers and the ratios between them — fractions, or what we now call rational numbers. But ...