Sorry....I always forget about that, Nataszaa....I always assume the variables are positive, but I shouldn't!!! ......Your instuctor is correct!!!
To see why this is, suppose we have:
√(a2) where "a" is negative.......If we evaluate this as just "a," we will get a negative value out of a positive square root, which is impossible!!!....
So the correct thing is......... l a l
Thanks for reminding me about this.....I'll have to put this one in my "memory bank" so I don't repeat that error!!!

No sunglasses for this one!!!