What is the geometric mean of 5 and 8?

• A. $\sqrt{13}$
• B. $\sqrt{40}$
• C. $6.5$
• D. $\frac{5+8}{2}$

Answer: (B)

Verified step by step guidance

1. Understand that the geometric mean of two numbers is the square root of their product.
2. Identify the two numbers given: 5 and 8.
3. Calculate the product of the two numbers: multiply 5 by 8 to get 5 \times 8.
4. Take the square root of the product calculated in the previous step, which is \sqrt{5 \times 8}.
5. Express the geometric mean as \sqrt{40}, which is the square root of the product of 5 and 8.