Math Help - Basic Square Root Question

I was reading an article on Purplemath about simplifying the square root terms. For instance in they instruct users to break down as a product and simply from there .

However what if you used a different pair of factors? Such as ? I understand once you get a perfect square you can remove it from under the radicand, but I attempted this problem and could not figure it out with the pair of factors I have. etc


I understand that we could simply solve by
knowing but that defeats the purpose of this exercise.

Originally Posted by HenryJ

I was reading an article on Purplemath about simplifying the square root terms. For instance in they instruct users to break down as a product and simply from there .

However what if you used a different pair of factors? Such as ? I understand once you get a perfect square you can remove it from under the radicand, but I attempted this problem and could not figure it out with the pair of factors I have. etc


I understand that we could simply solve by
knowing but that defeats the purpose of this exercise.

Where did I go wrong?

Originally Posted by HenryJ

Where did I go wrong?

You have mistaken for 4 in your 6th step.

So I have thank you!

Originally Posted by HenryJ

So I have thank you!

The bottom line:

If you have factored properly, there will be no problems.