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(A-MATH) Chapter 3 - Surds

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93 views16 pages

(A-MATH) Chapter 3 - Surds

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trinketvods
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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CHAPTER ANALYSIS

• Four operations on surds, including rationalizing the denominator.


• Simplifying surds.
• Solving equations involving surds.

Surds is a topic that will be tested together with several topics such as Differentiation, Integration.

The questions tested on this topic will always involve RATIONALISATION.

*This chapter has a pre-requisite of E-Math Chapter 3: Indices.*


LAWS OF INDICES
- You are expected to know Indices before starting
on the topic of Surds.

- Some laws of indices are related to the 4


operations of surds (“Same Power”)
4 OPERATIONS OF SURDS
- The law of multiplication and division occurs due to
law of indices (same power), which explains why we
can combine the base (a and b in this case) together.

- The law of addition and subtraction involves


factorising the common surd before performing
addition/subtraction.

Common misconception about addition/subtraction

3+ 2= 5

We only can combine the


numbers inside the surd
when it is multiplication or
division.
RATIONALISATION OF SURDS

We rationalise surds so that we can remove the roots from the


denominator since there should not be any roots in your
denominators when presented as the final answer.

Case 1: When the denominator is 𝑎, we rationalise by multiplying


the denominator by 𝑎 so that the square root will be removed.
However, remember to multiply the numerator by the same surd so
that the value of equation remains constant.

Case 2: You rationalise the denominator by multiplying by its


conjugate surd. The same rule applies here: remember to multiply
the numerator by the same surd so that the value of equation
remains constant.

*The conjugate surd of 𝑚 𝑎 ± 𝑛 𝑏 will be 𝑚 𝑎 ∓ 𝑛 𝑏.*

Reason behind is to make use of the special identity of:

𝑎 + 𝑏 𝑎 − 𝑏 = 𝑎2 − 𝑏2
SOLVING EQUATIONS INVOLVING SURDS

1) Make the equation in the form of LHS = RHS.


5𝑥 + 2 = 3𝑥 − 8

2) Remove the square roots by applying square on both sides .

5𝑥 + 2 = 3𝑥 − 8
If you obtain a quadratic equation which results in 2
solutions, check for your solutions by subbing it back into
3) Solve the algebraic equation. the original equation (question). Reject accordingly if the
2𝑥 = −6 answers do not match.

𝑥 = −3

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