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simplifying roots



summary
the essence of simplifying square roots for the gre exam involves breaking down the root into its prime factors or identifying the largest perfect-square factor to simplify the expression into a form that is recognizable among the answer choices.
  • understanding how to simplify square roots is crucial for solving gre problems, as answers are presented in their simplest form.
  • roots distribute over multiplication, allowing the separation of a root of products into a product of roots, facilitating simplification.
  • knowing the square roots of the first 15 perfect squares is beneficial for quick simplification.
  • the process involves expressing the number under the radical as the product of a perfect square times another number, then simplifying.
  • for particularly large numbers, it may be necessary to factor out the largest squares or find the full prime factorization to simplify the expression fully.
  • practice problems demonstrate the application of these strategies to simplify square roots effectively for the gre exam.
chapters
00:00
introduction to simplifying roots
00:39
the process of simplification
04:41
applying simplification to gre problems
05:29
practice problem and summary