What is the conjugate of sqrt((a+b))+7 ?

1 Answer
Jan 29, 2017

You can use -sqrt((a+b))+7 or sqrt((a+b))-7 as the conjugate of sqrt((a+b))+7

Explanation:

It actually does not matter. You can use -sqrt((a+b))+7 as the conjugate, or sqrt((a+b))-7.

By convention, if a binomial expression contains a rational and an irrational term, then we usually put the rational term first, e.g.:

2+3sqrt(5)

Then the radical conjugate is usually taken to be:

2-3sqrt(5)

i.e. reversing the sign of the irrational term.

Note that that does not cover the case of:

sqrt(2)+sqrt(3)

for which we could use the following expression as a conjugate:

sqrt(2)-sqrt(3)

Alternatively, we could use the following expression as a conjugate:

sqrt(3)-sqrt(2)

The fundamental idea is that a conjugate is an expression which when multiplied by the original results in a rational result.

For binomials with terms that involve rationals and square roots (but not square roots of square roots), you can form a conjugate by reversing the sign of either term.

This works because of the difference of squares identity:

A^2-B^2 = (A-B)(A+B)

So by reversing the sign of one term, we end up with a product only involving squares of the original terms.