Question 78765: CAN SOMEONE HELP ME WITH THIS, PLEASE?
Simplify. Assume x represents a positive number.
SQURT.80X^4
THANKS:) Answer by tutor_paul(519) (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
The first thing I see from this is that you can pull the x^4 term out from under
the radical and get:
Do you understand why that can be done? Think about it this way:
When you take the square root of a number, you are really raising
that number to the 1/2 power, like this:
There is a property about exponents that when a number with an exponent is raised
to another exponent, it can be simplified by keeping the base number and multiplying the exponents. In other words:
So that is how I was justified in getting the x^4 out from under the radical as an x^2.
You can now simplify even more if you recognize that:
Using the same logic as above, I can pull out a 0.2 and a 2 from under the radical. This leaves you with:
It's open to debate if that final answer is simpler than ,
but at least it is good practice in dealing with radicals!
Good Luck,
tutor_paul@yahoo.com
