Germany l can you solve this?? l Olympiad Mathematics

[@veikkoritvaniemi7627]

Try to check, you will be suprised.

[@signejul]

You could do something simpler by taking directly the square of both sides of the equation and you end up with 2 a ✓(-1) = 1024

[@doc_huebi]

Far to many steps. Squaring the original equatation gives 2 sqrt(-a*a) =144. Next step gives you already the solution. No need for trivial arithmetic laws or fumbling around with the pencil.