Roots of real numbers - Interpretations and misunderstandings - Empirical research (1988, 2021)

This research deals with the presentation of the nth root of a real number in the Greek and international bibliography. The aim of the research is the presentation of the difficulty in teaching the concept of the roots of real numbers to students and the ambiguities that exist, due to the different definitions of the ninth root, but mainly of the symbol √, in books (foreign press and international publications), from the middle of the 19th century until today. In order to assess the degree of understanding of the concept of the nth root by high school students, but also by students of the Department of Mathematics of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and the University of Western Macedonia, the results of an empirical research conducted in Thessaloniki in 1988 (by the author of the present research, when she was a student of the Mathematics Department of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki) were compared with the results of the same research conducted in April 2021.