Question 17582: can some one please show me how to rationalize the denominator in this problem?
1 / 2 + radical x
thanks Answer by rapaljer(4671) (Show Source):
Since this is a binomial denominator (two terms!), you must multiply numerator and denominator by the conjugate of the denominator--that is, the same as the denominator, but with the oppposite sign in the middle.
It looks like this:
*
When you expand the denominator, the middle terms subtract out (as they ALWAYS do!), and the denominator is just . This has no radicals, so it is said to be rationalized.
