Cube Roots

[MDwannabe7]

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I was going through a review book and they took the cube root of something without any indication of whether or not we will actually have to mentally cube root numbers on the MCAT or if there is a trick to doing so. Does anyone have any idea how to do this or if we need to worry about it?

 

[purpletrator]

it should be something simple, they won't expect to us derive using calculus or something difficult like that.

 

[ThePandaFactor]

yes it is possible but VERY difficult, it is much faster just to cube if you don't need precision.

 

[Vihsadas]

If worse comes to worst, just use your basic knowledge of cube roots to "estimate" it:

"What's the cube root of 50?"

Well, 3 cubed is 27, and 4 cubed is 64, so the Cube root of 50 is probably around 3.7.

 

[ecoli]

if cubed root is the last step, and you're sure the rest of your math is right, try cubing an answer choice. this way is probably error prone, but better than taking a wild guess.

 

[Vihsadas]

if cubed root is the last step, and you're sure the rest of your math is right, try cubing an answer choice. this way is probably error prone, but better than taking a wild guess.

Good point, usually only one of the answer choices will be in the right vicinity.