After a composition of transformations, the line segment from A(1, 4) to B(4, 2) maps to the line segment from C(-1, -2) to D(-4, -4). Which of the following describes he composition that is applied to stack A B with bar on top to obtain stack C D with bar on top

First step is to get rid of the square root. remember that a square root is the same as raising to the (1/2) power. see below: multiply exponents per exponent rules to get: remember you subtract exponents from the denominator and add exponents in the numerator so: simplify further: so a is the correct choice. if you don't understand this google exponent rules and it will you understand. look at the image results.