High School Math : Using Radicals with Elementary Operations

Study concepts, example questions & explanations for High School Math

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Example Questions

Example Question #1 : Using Radicals With Elementary Operations

What is the value of ?

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

When combining terms involving radicals, we can only combine the ones that have the same radical.  For this problem, that means  has to stay on its own while we can combine  and  into .  The simple integers can be combined too, giving us our answer with three seperate terms.

Example Question #1 : Using Radicals With Elementary Operations

Simplify the expression:.

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Exponents in the denominator can be subtracted from exponents in the numerator.

Recall that .

Therefore, .

 

Example Question #2 : Using Radicals With Elementary Operations

Simplify:

Possible Answers:

Correct answer:

Explanation:

Try to group factors in pairs to get perfect squares under the square root:

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