How do you express radicals in simlpest form?

Answer 1

by doing the operation that the radical tells you to do

If its a square, like sqrt(36), the simplest form is 6.

if its something like 48, it can be simplified. what i did at first to help me with radicals is this:

I set parenthese up with a square on the outside. ( )^2

I ask myself what is the number in there that when squared, is divisible by the original number. So in the case of 48 i would write (4)^2*3. because 4 squared is 16, and 16x3 is 48.

What ever in the parenthese goes on the out side of the radical what ever is left over goes under the radical. so the answer to sqrt(48) is 4sqrt(3)

You want to work with the highest possible number that your squaring, to get the simplest form of the radical. I could have said 2sqrt(12), that is also 48, but 12 can be simplified further.