document.write( "Question 74896: Can anyone help me with this?\r
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document.write( "My problem is how to rationalize the denominator:\r
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document.write( "2/ sqrt[6] - sqrt[5] \n" );
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Algebra.Com's Answer #53818 by bucky(2189)![]() ![]() ![]() You can put this solution on YOUR website! \n" ); document.write( ". \n" ); document.write( "I'm going to assume that both the square root terms are in the denominator as shown above. \n" ); document.write( ". \n" ); document.write( "You can rationalize the denominator through using the identity: \n" ); document.write( ". \n" ); document.write( " \n" ); document.write( ". \n" ); document.write( "You can multiply out the left side of this identity just to convince yourself that the result \n" ); document.write( "equals the right side. \n" ); document.write( ". \n" ); document.write( "The denominator of the problem is of the form (a - b). Suppose that we multiply the entire \n" ); document.write( "term of the problem by \n" ); document.write( "in the problem by 1 since the numerator of this multiplier equals the denominator. \n" ); document.write( "I used \"a\" and \"b\" so it might be easier to see what we're trying to do. Actually, we're \n" ); document.write( "going to let: \n" ); document.write( ". \n" ); document.write( " \n" ); document.write( ". \n" ); document.write( "So when we multiply the original problem by \n" ); document.write( "to multiply it by \n" ); document.write( ". \n" ); document.write( "Let's do it: \n" ); document.write( ". \n" ); document.write( " \n" ); document.write( ". \n" ); document.write( "In accordance with the identity above, after multiplying the original denominator \n" ); document.write( "of the problem by \n" ); document.write( "the difference between the squares of the two terms that were in the original denominator: \n" ); document.write( ". \n" ); document.write( " \n" ); document.write( ". \n" ); document.write( "But \n" ); document.write( "just equals 6 - 5 or 1. \n" ); document.write( ". \n" ); document.write( "Now all we have left to do is to work on the numerator. \n" ); document.write( ". \n" ); document.write( "The numerator of the original problem is 2, but we multiplied it by \n" ); document.write( "as part of the process associated with rationalizing the denominator. When we do this we get: \n" ); document.write( ". \n" ); document.write( " \n" ); document.write( ". \n" ); document.write( "That's the answer ... \n" ); document.write( "is just 1. \n" ); document.write( ". \n" ); document.write( "Hope that after looking through this you'll be familiar with using the identity to rationalize \n" ); document.write( "denominators. It will be useful to you when you work with complex numbers. \n" ); document.write( ". \n" ); document.write( " \n" ); document.write( " |