How do you rationalize the denominator and simplify 1/(sqrtx-1)?

1 Answer
May 3, 2016

(sqrt(x)+1) / (x-1) for x>=0 anmd x!=1.

Explanation:

The domain of this function is:
x>=0 to be able to perform an operation sqrt(x),
sqrt(x)-1 != 0, that is x != 1 to avoid division by 0.

For all x satisfying the above criteria let's multiply both numerator and denominator by the same expression (sqrt(x)+1).

This transforms our expression into
(sqrt(x)+1) / [(sqrt(x)-1)*(sqrt(x)+1)] = (sqrt(x)+1) / (x-1)