How do you divide sqrt7/(sqrt34+5)734+5?

1 Answer
Mar 24, 2015

This can be simplified a bit by removing the radical from the denominator.
To do this recall that
(a + b) * (a - b) = (a^2 - b^2)(a+b)(ab)=(a2b2)
or, for our particular case
(sqrt(34) + 5) * (sqrt(34) - 5) = 34 -25 = 9(34+5)(345)=3425=9

Applying this to the original problem:
sqrt(7)/(sqrt(34)+5)734+5

= sqrt(7)/(sqrt(34)+5) * (sqrt(34)-5)/(sqrt(34)-5)=734+5345345

= ((sqrt(7)) (sqrt(34) - 5))/9=(7)(345)9

(The numerator could be multiplied but doing so provides not obvious simplification.)