RADICALS Friday, August 29, 2014

Vocabulary What is a radical? What is a radicand? What is the index?

Simplifying radicals Look at the index. If the index is 2, find the greatest perfect square that will go into the radicand. If the index is 3, find the greatest perfect cube that will go into the radicand. If the index is n, find the greatest perfect factor of n that will go into the radicand. Pull out those perfect squares, cubes etc. Anything left over stays in the radicand.

Simplifying radicals When simplifying radicals with variables… Divide the exponent of the variable by the index. Pull out that variable. Anything left over stays in the radicand.

Reminders Even indexes must be positive or they are imaginary, not real. Odd indexes can be negative. The square root of a number can be re-written as that number to the ½ power. Likewise, the cube root can be written as the number to the 1/3 power. So, the rules of exponents apply! Radicals are like parenthesis. Distribute to everything. Even root with an odd power…need absolute value!

Classwork With your learning partner, do the ODD problems from the Simplifying Radicals worksheet.

Complete the Simplifying Radicals worksheet. homework Complete the Simplifying Radicals worksheet.