Introduction to Radicals and Rational Expressions
Learning Objectives
By the end of this section, you will be able to:- Evaluate square roots.
- Use the product rule to simplify square roots.
- Use the quotient rule to simplify square roots.
- Add and subtract square roots.
- Rationalize denominators.
- Use rational roots.
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[latex]\begin{array}{ccc}\hfill {a}^{2}+{b}^{2}& =& {c}^{2}\hfill \\ \hfill {5}^{2}+{12}^{2}& =& {c}^{2}\hfill \\ \hfill 169& =& {c}^{2}\hfill \end{array}[/latex]
Now, we need to find out the length that, when squared, is 169, to determine which ladder to choose. In other words, we need to find a square root. In this section, we will investigate methods of finding solutions to problems such as this one.