anonymous 5 years ago how do you simplify sqaure roots (radicals)?

1. anonymous

what kind of square roots are you specifically talking about? is it surds or what?

2. anonymous

i dont even know what that is, its like a regular one, you have to find a perfect square first to find it.

3. anonymous

can you pls give an example

4. anonymous

(radical sign)169, i know the answer is 13 but i have to simplfiy the square root

5. anonymous

doesn't the square root have this thing in it

6. anonymous

I think we should do this on chat, its kinda hard this way...

7. anonymous

cheergirl, what thing? lol

8. anonymous

$\sqrt{169}$ thats what it looks like

9. anonymous

10. anonymous

yes, i know but i have to simplifiy it

11. anonymous

I really think 13 cannot be simplified..

12. anonymous

the square root had to be simplified

13. anonymous

This is what my book says: Simplifiy each square root. $\sqrt{169}$

14. anonymous

simplifying just makes sense when you have expression with variables, e.g sqrt( cos^2(x)+sin^2(x)+1) , otherwise you jusr try to evaluate the square root of the numer, like in thes case, if the answer is not that easy, you could try thongs like this: sqrt(20) = sqrt(5*4) = 2*sqrt(5)

15. anonymous

here lets try this one, i guess that one is hard.

16. anonymous

Simplifiy each square root: $\sqrt{121}$

17. anonymous

11

18. anonymous

how did you do that pentop?

19. anonymous

what i mean is that simplifying means dealing with variables not with numbers, however, $\sqrt{121}=11$

20. anonymous

well, 11e2=121

21. anonymous

sorry, I meant 11squared =121..

22. anonymous

yeah there are some roots you ought to memorize 'cause they are too common

23. anonymous

i know that it is 11 but i have to simplifiy it, im so confused. i know how to solve them, i cant simplifiy with perfect squares though

24. anonymous

simplifying the square root simply means doing the operation of taking the square or making sure that there are no perfect squares under the radical sign. so with your problem, 13 is the simplification of root 169.

25. anonymous

exactly...

26. anonymous

but how can i show the work for that?

27. anonymous

nevermind im not gonna do my homework lol

28. anonymous

The only way I can think of to show it is to factor what is under the radical into 11^2 and then the square root of something squared is just that, in this case 11

29. anonymous

$\sqrt{121}$ = $\sqrt{11 x 11}$ = 11