More in Division of Radical Expressions

MORE ON DIVISION OF RADICAL EXPRESSIONS

Rationalizing Denominators

Sometimes in mathematics it is useful to find an equivalent expression

without a radical in the denominator. This provides a standard notation for

expressing results. The procedure for finding such an expression is called

rationalizing the denominator.We carry this out by multiplying by 1.

 

Rationalizing When There Are Two Terms

Certain pairs of expressions containing square roots, such as c – \sqrt{b}, c + \sqrt{b}, and , \sqrt{a}\sqrt{b}, \sqrt{a} + \sqrt{b} , are called conjugates. The product of such a pair of conjugates has no radicals in it.

Thus when we wish to rationalize a denominator that has two terms and one

or more of them involves a square-root radical, we multiply by 1 using the

conjugate of the denominator to write a symbol for 1.

 

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