I need help understanding radicals.

Question

anonymous · Answer

An nth root.
A radical expression involving roots.
The radical symbol (√), used to indicate the square root and other roots.
Radical of an algebraic group, a concept in algebraic group theory.
Radical of an ideal, an important concept in abstract algebra.

theraggedydoctor · Answer

Um.. what am I supposed to know with that?

theraggedydoctor · Answer

That doesn't help me solve them.

skullpatrol · Answer

Please post a specific question involving them that you do not understand :)

theraggedydoctor · Answer

It's not really a specific one, though. It's just the concept of radicals that I don't understand.

skullpatrol · Answer

They are an extension of the idea of positive and negative integer exponents generalized to include fractions.

usukidoll · Answer

one rule is that we can NEVER have negative signs inside the radical... that produces an imaginary number.

welshfella · Answer

when simplifying radical expression treat the radical like a variable:-

3x + 2x = 5x
3 sqrt2 + 2 sqrt2  = 5 sqrt2

skullpatrol · Answer

$$\Huge a^{-n}=\dfrac{1}{a^n}$$ this^ extends the idea of positive integer exponents to includes the negative integers, right?

skullpatrol · Answer

"the concept of radicals" is to go one more step and let n be a fraction :)

skullpatrol · Answer

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nth_root