Simplifying Square Roots

Date: 9/5/95 at 19:14:17
From: Richard Seguin
Subject: radicals

Could you please help me with this problem:
              ____
        1/2 \/ 24

I know this may seem simple but I am tring to work ahead of my class. How
would you go about working this out?

Richard Seguin

Date: 9/8/95 at 12:58:46
From: Doctor Ken
Subject: Re: radicals

Hello!

The 1/2 sitting out front is just a number that we can multiply by at the
end.  So I won't worry about it now.  To simplify the Sqrt{24}, see if you
can find any square factors in it.  Holy cow, 24 = 4 * 6 = 2^2 * 6.  So we
can pull squares out of the radical, like so:

Sqrt{24} = Sqrt{2^2 * 6} 
         = 2 * Sqrt{6}

And that's about as far as you can go.  Then you take that 2 and cancel it
with the 1/2, and the final answer is Sqrt{6}.  

- Doctor Ken,  The Geometry Forum