How do you simplify sqrt(50) - sqrt(18)?5018?

1 Answer
Jun 11, 2018

2sqrt222

Explanation:

The key realization here is that we can leverage the radical property

sqrt(ab)=sqrtasqrtbab=ab

Thus, we can rewrite color(blue)(sqrt50)-color(red)(sqrt18)5018 as

color(blue)(sqrt(25*2))-color(red)(sqrt(9*2))25292

which simplifies to

5sqrt2-3sqrt25232

Factoring out a sqrt22, we get

sqrt2(5-3)2(53)

Which simplifies to

2sqrt222

Hope this helps!