Simplifying surds

• To simplify a surd, we need to look for any factors that are squares.
• We can then take the square root of these factors out of the surd.

Example: simplify \sqrt{48}

• =\sqrt{16\times3}
• =\sqrt{16}\times\sqrt{3}
• =4\sqrt{3}

Example: simplify \sqrt{18}

• =\sqrt{9\times2}
• =\sqrt{9}\times\sqrt{2}
• =3\sqrt{2}

Example: simplify \sqrt{50}

• =\sqrt{25\times2}
• =\sqrt{25}\times\sqrt{2}
• =5\sqrt{2}

flashcards