Topic: Radical Expressions
Subtopic: Operations III - Distribute, Foil, & Factor
Overview
Continue to expand your knowledge of radical expressions by distributing radicals, FOILing radical expressions, and using radicals to factor polynomial expressions. This will conclude our work with operations on radical expressions.
Objectives
By the end of this topic you should know and be prepared to be tested on:
- 10.5.1 Distribute a radical expression through a binomial radical expression
- 10.5.2 FOIL to multiply two binomial radical expressions
- 10.5.3 Factor a difference of squares using radicals, e.g. x2-2=(x-√2)(x+√2)
Terminology
Define: binomial radical expression (a.k.a. binomial of radicals)
Text Notes
Text:
Intro & Inter Algebra for CS 3ed by Blitzer, sect. 10.5
- This section covers FOILing binomials that contain radical terms. Hmmm, could factoring be far behind?
- pg 700-704 covers "rationalizing the denominator" which is an important concept to learn. Particularly concentrate on those that have single terms in the denominator. Watch the index carefully as it somewhat complicates the process!
- pg 704-705 including example 7. SKIP all the "rationalizing the numerator" stuff as it is only used in calculus and even then only rarely.