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 may have complex entries even if "M" is a real matrix; this will be the case, in particular, if the determinant "δ" is negative. When a matrix can be expressed as real multiple of the exponent of a matrix, formula_5 then the square root is formula_6 In this case the square root is real, and can be interpreted as the square root of a type of complex number. If "M" is an idempotent matrix, meaning that "MM" = "M", then if it is not the identity matrix its determinant is zero, and its trace equals its rank which (excluding the