simplfying radical expressions

Question

√32x-√128x

Answer 1

When working with radicals, we can break up the radicals by factoring the number that is inside them.  We choose factors that are easy to find the square-root of and work our way from there.

 

 

√(32x) - √(128x)  =

 

√(16)√(2)√(x)  -  √(64)√(2)√(x)  =

 

     4√(2)√(x)    -      8√(2)√(x)

 

 

We can factor out the √(2x).

 

√(2x)[4 - 8]=

 

-4√(2x)