Eli5: How operations with roots work.

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I’m about to take a college entrance exam and I just can’t make sense of it all. A friend of mine called them “spicy fractions” but I genuinely do not understand. Like, what does it mean, in a physical and earthly sense when you have something like 5[Square root of 2] (which according to this, it’s 50). What is this notation for, and what does it accomplish in a real world setting? What properties apply to them, and how do you even *get* to these types of numbers?

In: Mathematics

6 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

its lets you simplify square roots without giving up exact answers. Say you have √50/√98, what even is that in normal numbers? No idea, so simplify both. you end up with 5√2 / 7√2, the √2s cancel, leaving you with just 5/7.

To get them you just do division with perfect squares. √50=√(25*2)=√25*√2=5√2

This works for pretty much any number, (it must be the product of at least 1 square though)

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