Square root of 2 the square root of two, with a reasonable small denominator, the fraction (≈ 1.4142857) is sometimes used. The sequence in the OEIS gives the numerical value for the square root of two, truncated to 65 decimal places: The Babylonian clay tablet YBC 7289 (c. 1800–1600 BC) gives an approximation of in four sexagesimal figures, , which is accurate to about six decimal digits, and is the closest possible three-place sexagesimal representation of : Another early close approximation is given in ancient Indian mathematical texts, the Sulbasutras (c. 800–200 BC) as follows: "Increase the length [of the side] by its third
Square root of a 2 by 2 matrix use the simplified formula where "a" = ±√"A" and "d" = ±√"D"; which, for the various sign choices, gives four, two, or one distinct matrices, if none of, only one of, or both "A" and "D" are zero, respectively. Because it has duplicate eigenvalues, the 2×2 identity matrix formula_10 has infinitely many symmetric rational square roots given by where is any Pythagorean triple—that is, any set of positive integers such that formula_12 In addition, any non-integer, irrational, or complex values of "r, s, t" satisfying formula_13 give square root matrices. The identity matrix also has infinitely many non-symmetric square roots.