13.3. Operations with Radicals
13.3.1. Adding and Subtracting Radicals
One reason we learned to simplify radicals is to be able to combine them. Radicals are called similar if they have the same index and the same radicand, such as 
and 
. We add and subtract radicals by combining similar radicals.
Example 32:Here's how to combine similar radicals.
|
Radicals that may look similar at first glance may not actually be similar.
Example 33:The radicals
are not similar. |
NOTE
Do not try to combine radicals that are not similar.
Radicals that do not appear to be similar at first may turn out to be so after simplification.
Example 34:In these examples we simplify and then combine radicals.
|
13.3.2. Multiplying Radicals
Radicals having the same index can be multiplied by using Eq. 31
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