Mastering Arithmetic Operations with Like Radicals | Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, and Division

like radicals

“Like radicals” refer to radicals that have the same radicand

“Like radicals” refer to radicals that have the same radicand. In other words, they have the same expression inside the square root symbol (√).

For example, let’s consider the radicals √5 and √20. Both of them contain the radicand 5. Since the radicands are the same, we can say that √5 and √20 are like radicals.

When working with like radicals, we can perform arithmetic operations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.

Addition/subtraction: To add or subtract like radicals, you simply combine or separate the coefficients (the numbers outside the square root symbol) while keeping the radicand the same. For example, if we have √5 + √5, the result will be 2√5.

Multiplication: When multiplying like radicals, we multiply the coefficients together and then take the square root of the radicand. For instance, if we have 2√5 multiplied by 3√5, we get (2 * 3)√(5 * 5) = 6√25.

Division: Dividing like radicals follows a similar method. We divide the coefficients and then take the square root of the radicand. For example, if we have √12 ÷ √3, we can simplify it as √(12 ÷ 3) = √4 = 2.

In summary, like radicals have the same radicand, and we can perform arithmetic operations on them by combining or separating the coefficients while keeping the radicand the same.

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