All SAT Mathematics Resources
Example Questions
Example Question #1 : Solving Problems With Roots
Simplify
For what value of is this equation true?
To solve for , we must first square both sides to get rid of the radical. We get
We subtract both sides by to get the alone.
We square root both sides to get
Answer choice and are incorrect.
Answer choice is incorrect because it was not square rooted.
Example Question #2 : Solving Problems With Roots
Simplify
For what value of is this equation true?
To solve for , we must first square both sides to get rid of the radical. We get . We subtract both sides by to get the alone.
We divide by to get alone .
We square root both sides to get Since is not listed as an answer choice, we simplify. The highest square root that can multiply to is . We take the out of the radical to get .
Example Question #3 : Solving Problems With Roots
Simplify:
To solve this problem we must first simplify the radical by breaking it up into two parts becomes then we simplify into to get
We multiply to get , then divide by to get
Example Question #4 : Solving Problems With Roots
Find the value of
To solve this problem we must first simplify into and further into
Then we can multiply to get
To find we first cancel out the on both sides and then divide by and get
Example Question #5 : Solving Problems With Roots
Find the value of
To solve this problem we must first subtract from both sides
Then we square both sides
Add the to both sides
Divide both sides by
Example Question #6 : Solving Problems With Roots
Find the value of
To solve this problem we first multiply both sides by to get rid of the fraction
Then we add to both sides
We move to the left side to set the equation equal to . This way we are able to factor the equation as if it was a quadratic.
And now we can factor into
Therefore the value of is
does not exist
Example Question #7 : Solving Problems With Roots
Find the value of
To solve this problem we first multiply both sides by to get rid of the fraction
Then we add to both sides
We move to the left side to set the equation equal to . This way we are able to factor the equation as if it was a quadratic.
And now we can factor into
Therefore the value of is
, does not exist
,
Example Question #8 : Solving Problems With Roots
Find the value of
Only
and
and
Only
and
To solve this problem we must first subtract a square from both sides
We move to the right side to set the equation equal to . This way we are able to factor the equation as if it was a quadratic.
And now we can factor into
Example Question #9 : Solving Problems With Roots
Which of the following is equivalent to ?
If you try to simplify the expression given in the question, you will have a hard time…it is already simplified! However, if you look at the four answer choices you will realize that most of these contain roots in the denominator. Whenever you see a root in the denominator, you should look to rationalize that denominator. This means that you will multiply the expression by one to get rid of the root.
Consider each answer choice as you attempt to simplify each.
For choice , the expression is already simplified and is not the same. At this point, your time is better spent simplifying those that need it to see if those simplified forms match.
For choice , employ the "multiply by one" strategy of multiplying by the same numerator as denominator to rationalize the root. If you do so, you will multiply by
, which is no the same as .
For answer choice , multiply by .
And since , you can simplify the fraction:
, which matches perfectly. Therefore, answer choice is correct.
NOTE: If you want to shortcut the algebra, this problem offers you that opportunity by leveraging the answer choices along with an estimate. You can estimate that the given expression, , is between and , because the is between (which is ) and (which is ). Therefore you know you are looking for a proper fraction, a fraction in which the numerator is smaller than the denominator. Well, look at your answer choices and you will see that only answer choice fits that description. So without even doing the math, you can rely on a quick estimate and know that you are correct.
Example Question #10 : Solving Problems With Roots
If and , what is ?
The key to this problem is to avoid mistakes in finding with the root equation. There are a few different ways you could solve for :
1. Leverage the fact that and apply that to . That means that . Divide both sides by and see that , so .
2. Realize that (reverse engineering the root) and see that , so must equal .
However you find , you must then apply that value to the exponent expression in the second equation. Now you have . And since you're dealing with exponents, you will want to express as , meaning that you now have:
Here you should deal with the negative exponents, the rule for which is that . So the fraction you're given, , can then be transformed to .
Now you have:
Employing another rule of exponents, that of dividing exponents of the same base, you can transform the left-hand side to:
Since you now have everything with a base of , you can express as just . This then means that is the correct answer choice.
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