Question

Could someone explain to me why is it important to simplify radical expressions before adding or subtracting?

Answer 1

It is not really important, but you can say that it makes computation easier.

Answer 2

yes, what @across said.
for example, sqrt8 + sqrt50. if you needed this value, would you rather work with (sqrt8 +sqrt50) or just 7sqrt2?

Answer 3

Consider this example


Add: \[\sqrt{s} \sqrt{?}\]


\[\sqrt{s} \sqrt{?}\] Start with the given expression. Can you add these two radicals in this state? The answer is simply no. We need to simplify the radicals.


Take the square root of 4 to get 2. Take the square root of 16 to get 4. In this step we have simplified the radicals.

Add 2+4


So simplifies to 6. In other words,