Exercise 8 Page 657

To simplify the given radical expression, we first need to rewrite the radicands so that they have exponents that match the index of the radicals. Then we will consider the properties for combining radical expressions when they are part of a sum or difference. asqrt(x)+bsqrt(x)=(a+b)sqrt(x) asqrt(x)-bsqrt(x)=(a-b)sqrt(x) Notice that radicals can only be added or subtracted when the index and the value inside are exactly the same. Let's use perfect squares to simplify our radicals to see if we can create like terms.