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 for the square root was first used in print in 1525 in Christoph Rudolff's "Coss". The principal square root function "f"("x") = (usually just referred to as the "square root function") is a function that maps the set of nonnegative real numbers onto itself. In geometrical terms, the square root function maps the area of a square to its side length. The square root of "x" is rational if and only if "x" is a rational number that can be represented as a ratio of two perfect squares. (See square root of 2 for proofs that this is an irrational