SOLUTION: how do you simplify 8/2+ the square root of 6?

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Question 174680: how do you simplify 8/2+ the square root of 6?
Answer by Alan3354(69443) About Me  (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website!
how do you simplify 8/2+ the square root of 6?
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"Simplify" usually means getting radicals out of the denominator.
8%2F%282%2Bsqrt%286%29%29
The "trick" to doing these is to multiply NUM and DEN by the conjugate of the DEN.
=8%2A%282-sqrt%286%29%29%2F%28%282%2Bsqrt%286%29%29%2A%282-sqrt%286%29%29%29
= %2816-8sqrt%286%29%29%2F%284-6%29
= -8+%2B+4sqrt%286%29
It's slightly simpler, but not much.