Not sure how to rationalize the denominator

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April 9th 2011, 06:11 AM
mathguy80

Not sure how to rationalize the denominator

Hi All,

Simplify the following expression

$ \dfrac { (b+c)^{\frac{-3}{8}} - (b-c)^{\frac{-3}{8}} } {(b^2 - c^2)^{\frac{5}{8}} } $

I am unclear on how to proceed with this problem. Your help is much appreciated. Thanks.
April 9th 2011, 06:21 AM
Prove It

Try multiplying top and bottom by $\displaystyle \left(b^2 - c^2\right)^{\frac{3}{8}}$ .
April 9th 2011, 08:03 AM
mathguy80

Ah cool! I see. So Rationalizing here is to try to get the power of the denominator = 1. That works out, Thanks!

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