Lanna

One thing I know about radical (or whatever it is) is that it DOESN'T make any sense to me. This is what an online dictionary defined it as: A number that when multiplied by itself an indicated number of times forms a product equal to a specified number. For example, a fourth root of 4 is √2. Also called nth root. Well, I guess it...umm... It still doen't make sense to me. (Is it like a root sign thing over a number will equal half or something???)I don't really know how to put it in my own words. I guess it uses algebra..that's really all I can get out of it. To me, all it can be used for right now is making me confused because it doesn't make any sense to me. I guess that once you understand it, it can be used to make equations like that less confusing (?). Maybe it's helpful in the older grades or whenever you need it. Well, I don't get how it works, but here is an example I found: The number under the root symbol is called radicand.
The expression ⁴√a (something like this) is read as “a radical n” or “the n th root of a”. An example could be √14=7 and √5-1=2
there..I hope it's good enough.