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Negative Radicals

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EV33

Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 11:27 am Post subject: Negative Radicals

Forum Freshman

Joined: 04 Nov 2007
Posts: 59
Location: Washington State

How do you simplify negative radicals?

Take for instance sqrt(-108)...

MagiMaster

Posted: Fri Jun 27, 2008 9:47 pm Post subject:

Forum Senior

Joined: 16 Jul 2006
Posts: 311

You need imaginary numbers (i = sqrt(-1)), but with that, it's usually pretty simple.

Your example: sqrt(-108) = sqrt(-1 * 108) = sqrt(-1)*sqrt(108) = i*sqrt(108)

Of course, if you had something like sqrt(1 - sqrt(-2)), you'd get sqrt(1 - i*sqrt(2)), which is still a complex number, but isn't quite so simple.

EV33

Posted: Sat Jun 28, 2008 10:57 am Post subject:

Forum Freshman

Joined: 04 Nov 2007
Posts: 59
Location: Washington State

All right thanks for the help.

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