Did you hear about... (answer)
Pg 211 Pizazz Algebra
Rationalizing the denominator
No. None of the staff have that text, as far as I know.
Do you have a specific problem in mind?
5/square root of 3
Yes, I am familiar with rationalizing the denominator in algebra. Rationalizing the denominator is a process used to eliminate any radicals or square roots from the denominator of a fraction. This is done by multiplying both the numerator and denominator of the fraction by a suitable expression that will remove the square root from the denominator.
To explain how to rationalize the denominator, let's consider an example. Suppose we have the fraction:
√2 / 3
To rationalize the denominator, we need to get rid of the square root in the denominator. Since the denominator is 3, we can multiply both the numerator and denominator by the conjugate of 3, which is also 3. The conjugate of a number is formed by changing the sign of the imaginary part, if any. In this case, we don't have an imaginary part, so the conjugate of 3 is just -3.
Multiplying the numerator and denominator by -3 gives us:
(√2 / 3) * (-3 / -3)
Simplifying this expression gives us:
-√2 / -9
Since the negative signs cancel out, we can write the final result as:
√2 / 9
Now, the denominator is no longer a radical, and we have successfully rationalized it.
In the book "Pizazz Algebra" on page 211, you may find more examples and exercises on rationalizing the denominator to further understand the concept.