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Chapter 4 - Surds, Indices and

Exponential
A Surds
A radical is any number which is written with the radical sign √

A surd is a number that can’t be simplified to remove a square root

Surds are real, irrational radical such as √2, √3, √5, or √6.
Surds are present in solutions to some quadratic equations.
√4 is a radical, but is not a surd as it simplifies to 2.

💡 Radical = √2 (even number)

Surds = √3 (odd number)

Number Decimeal Surd?

√1 1 No

√2 1.414213... Yes

√4 2 No

√1/4 0.5 No

√2/3 0.816496... Yes

Important Properties of Surds

Chapter 4 - Surds, Indices and Exponential 1

 Division by Surds

Expressions such as a + √b and a - √b are known as radical conjugates.

They are identical except for the sign in the middle.

The product of radical conjugates is rational, since we have the difference

between two squares.

Multiplying by a - √b / a - √b therefore produces a rational denominator, so

it is sometimes called rationalising the denominator.

B Indices

Negative Bases
A negative base raised to an odd index is negative.

A negative base raised to an even index is positive.

Chapter 4 - Surds, Indices and Exponential 2

 C Index Laws

D Rational Indices

E Algebraic Expansion and

Factorisation
Expansion

Chapter 4 - Surds, Indices and Exponential 3

 F Exponential Equations

💡 An exponential equation is an equation in which the unknown occurs

as part of the index or exponent

Methods to solve exponential equation

graph

technology

logarithms

algebra

G Exponential Functions

As x becomes large and negative, the graph of y = 2x approaches the x-axis from
above but never touches it, since 2x becomes very small but never zero

Chapter 4 - Surds, Indices and Exponential 4

 y = 2^x is ‘asymptotic to the x-axis’ or ‘y = 0 is a horizontal asymptote’

simple exponential functions have smooth increasing or decreasing graphs

We can sketch reasonably accurate graphs of exponential

functions using:

the horizontal asymptote

the y-intercept

Chapter 4 - Surds, Indices and Exponential 5

 two other points, for example, when x = 2, x = -2

H The Natural Exponential e^x

The number e is called a natural exponential because it arises naturally in
mathematics and has numerous real life applicaitons

💡 e 2.7183

Chapter 4 - Surds, Indices and Exponential 6