What is the square root of 6?

It's an irrational number ... it can never be written down on paper exactly.

The beginning of it is 2.449489 ... and it keeps going forever.

You might think that using only part of a number in a problem makes your

answer wrong. In a way that's true. But if you use 2.449489 for the square-

root of 6, then your final answer is only about 0.00003 percent wrong, and

that's close enough ... even if you're building bridges or spacecraft.

"But", you say, "How can I hand in an answer on my homework that's wrong?"

Here's a secret that's so big that nobody ever talks about it. Once you know it,

it'll change your whole way of thinking. And you'll stop fishing for answers on

the internet:

The answers in homework don't matter! The answer is the least important

part of any homework problem, and nobody needs it. If your teacher needed

an answer, then he/she could get it a lot faster by working out the problem.

If he/she didn't have time to work on it, then the teacher would go to somebody

who knows it cold ... they certainly wouldn't ask somebody who's just learning

it for the first time.

The purpose of the homework is NOT to generate answers. It's to lead you

down the path of learning how to do the problem. When somebody else gives

you the answer and you hand it in, 2 things happen:

#1: you cheat;

#2: you don't learn anything.

It's a bad deal all around.