Explain how you know if a radical expression is in simplest form.
A radical expression is in simplest form if it meets the following conditions:
1. The radicand (the number inside the radical symbol) cannot have a perfect square factor other than 1. In other words, the radicand cannot be divided evenly by any perfect square number.
2. The index of the radical (the small number outside the radical symbol) must be as small as possible. For example, if the index is 3, the expression is in simplest form if the radicand cannot be written as a perfect cube.
3. The expression should not have any radicals in the denominator or in the denominator of a fraction, and there should not be any fractional or decimal exponents.
To determine if a radical expression is in simplest form, you can carefully analyze the radicand to see if it satisfies the above conditions. If any of these conditions are violated, the radical expression needs to be simplified further.