SOLUTION: 4 + radical 2 ___________ __ 4 - radical 2 That line on top is suppose to represent a fraction bar. I eliminated 4 and multiplied negative radical 2 and I'm lost from t

SOLUTION: 4 + radical 2 _________ 4 - radical 2 That line on top is suppose to represent a fraction bar. I eliminated 4 and multiplied negative radical 2 and I'm lost from t

Question 190280: 4 + radical 2
______________
4 - radical 2
That line on top is suppose to represent a fraction bar.
I eliminated 4 and multiplied negative radical 2 and I'm lost from there.
I don't know if I'm doing it right & i would appreciate anyone's help.
Thank you.
Answer by solver91311(24713) (Show Source): You can put this solution on YOUR website!

You can't just "eliminate" the 4 because 4 is not a factor of either the numerator or the denominator and you can only eliminate common factors. The only thing you can do to this is rationalize the denominator. That means you get rid of the radical in the denominator making the denominator a rational number.

Just squaring the denominator won't do you any good because you would still end up with a term that has a radical in it.

What you need to do is multiply the fraction by 1 in the form of the conjugate of the denominator divided by itself.

Remember the difference of two squares factorization?