[Math] the history of $\sqrt{}$

Question

Why we use the symbol $\sqrt{}$ when we take square roots ? Anybody knows the history ?

Answer 1

We use "\sqrt" (in TeX) since Knuth chose that command for the square root symbol.

Square roots have been computed since the days of the Babyloneans, but they didn't use the symbol.

The symbol √ for the square root was first used in print in 1525 in Christoph Rudolff's Coss.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square_root, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_mathematical_notation