§4A and §4B - Simplifying Radicals and Surds

I CONSIDER THIS…

Can you construct a line of length 2 units? If so, how, if not, why not?

II ENTIRE AND MIXED RADICALS

Recall:

Finding perfect squares or perfect cubes is the basis for the work that you will be
doing with radicals.

A radical in which the radicand is composed of numbers/variables is called an

entire radical.

3 3 5 2 4
E.g., 5, 17, 6𝑎𝑏 , 137𝑥 𝑦

A radical that has a simplified radicand and a numerical coefficient is called a

mixed radical.

3 5 4 3
E.g., 2 5, 4 6, − 13 7𝑥𝑦 𝑧 , 25 10

1
A mixed radical is considered the simplest form of a radical.

A surd is a real, irrational radical.

3
E.g., 15, 9, π

III PRODUCT AND QUOTIENT RULES

Operations with radicals are similar to operations with exponents. Multiplying and
dividing radicals (with the same index) is based on the property that radicals can
be split into their respective products.

Consider,
25 × 4 =

36
=
4

Alternatively,
36
25×4 = 4
=

2
This leads us to the Product Rule and Quotient Rule for Radicals; respectively, they
are:

𝑎 𝑎
𝑎 × 𝑏 = 𝑎 × 𝑏, 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑎, 𝑏∈𝑅 = 𝑏
, 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑎, 𝑏∈𝑅, 𝑏≠0
𝑏

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IV SIMPLIFYING A RADICAL
A radical (of a non-perfect square, etc.) is considered simplified if the following
conditions are met:
● The radicand contains no more factors that can be simplified, given the
index of the radical
● The radical is the product of an integer and the radical
● No radicals exist in the quotient

One method of simplifying involves writing the radicand as a product of its prime
factors.

Exercise 1: Simplify by factoring the radicand. Assume variables represent

non-negative numbers.

a) b)

c) d)

3 3 5 3 2
e) 18𝑥 f) 𝑥𝑦𝑧

4
 40
g) 6

V USING THE PRODUCT AND QUOTIENT RULES

Exercise: Simplify using the product and quotient rules and factoring.
Assume variables represent nonnegative numbers.

a) b)

5
c) d)

Try these:

a) b)