Under the Radical concept to solve

studentkid · #1 Sep 12, 2007, 02:39 AM

I know that under the radical, we can break it down to smaller radicals or simply into whole numbers if it's a perfect square.

But, with this problem::
radical x^2-1
is it broken down separately?..if so..the x^2 would become x, but the -1 cant...

my question is, is this the simplest form it can be or can i simply it even more? If so, how can i simplify it even more?

ebaines · Sep 12, 2007, 05:13 AM

I assume what you mean is this:
$ \sqrt {x^2 -1} $

and not this:
$ \sqrt {x^2} \ -\ 1 $

Is that right? In that case you are correct - there's really nothing more you can do to simplify the expression. If it's the latter that you meant, then what you have is the square root of x squared, so it would be easily simplified as follows:

$ \sqrt {x^2}\ -\ 1\ =\ x - 1 $



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