Author Topic: help me with radicals please  (Read 488 times)

so today my math teacher taught us radicals, and i had no idea what they were
i know they are square roots but i don't understand how to simplify them
can someone help?

counter them with conservative and reactionary arguments

as i remember you have to find the perfect square thats divisible by the radical and then simplify it to the a whole number
so
√48
√16 √3
4 √3

i think
« Last Edit: April 14, 2015, 04:50:59 PM by Epicduke »

I hate radicals. Wish I could help but I'm bad with math

First look at the number inside the root and try and simplify it into two multiples, one of the multiples being as small as they can be

For example √32 can become √(2x16)

That can also be written as √2 x √16

You then have to realise that 16 has a root, which is 4

so it becomes √2 x 4, which is 4√2

Its not something you wake up and are good at, you'll get used to it the more you work with them
« Last Edit: April 14, 2015, 04:59:29 PM by General »



haha, I was thinking of saying "wow radical man" to my teacher
thank you, could you leave one more example?

Ok say you have √164

Like I said, first step is to find 2 multiples in the root to make 164, one being the lowest possible

√164 can become √(2x82), the only problem is that neither 2 or 82 have an exact root, so we have to find another 2 multiples

√164 can then also become √(4x41), and here we have a multiple that has an exact root, 4...

So we do

√4 x √41

2 x √41

2√41.