Exercise 36

Half the area of a square is \( u^4 \). Then, the length of side is:

  1. \( 2 u^2 \)

  2. \( u^2 \sqrt{2} \)

  3. \( u^2 \)

  4. \( u \sqrt{2} \)

  5. \( 4 u^2 \)

Try to solve it before checking the answer.
  1. \( u^2 \sqrt{2} \)

If \( L \) is the length of the side of the square, its area is \( L^2 \).

Since half of the area is \( u^4 \), we have that:

\[ \begin{aligned} \frac{L^2}{2} = u^4 &\Rightarrow L^2 = 2 u^4 \\[.5em] &\Rightarrow L = \sqrt{ 2 u^4 } \\[.5em] &\hspace{2.5em} = \sqrt{2} \sqrt{ u^4 } \\[.5em] &\hspace{2.5em} = \sqrt{2} u^2 \\[.5em] &\hspace{2.5em}= \boldsymbol{ u^2 \sqrt{2} } \end{aligned} \]