Question

What is 3√20 - 3√45 + 5√12 in simplest radical form? Show all work.

Answer 1

Answer: -3√5 + 10√3

Step 1: Find the prime factorization of the number inside the radical.

Step 2: Determine the index of the radical. In this case, the index is two because it is a square root, which means we need two of a kind.

Step 3: Move each group of numbers or variables from inside the radical to outside the radical. In this case, the pair of 2’s and 3’s moved outside the radical.

Step 4: Simplify the expressions both inside and outside the radical by multiplying.