Question

Explain the process of simplifying square roots by hand
ex: square root of 12

Answer 1

To simplify a square root by hand, break down the number into prime factors and take out one factor from each pair.

Step-by-step explanation:

To simplify a square root by hand, you can break down the number under the square root into its prime factorization. For example, to simplify the square root of 12, we can find that 12 = 2 * 2 * 3. Then, we pair up the prime factors in groups of two, and take one factor from each pair out of the square root. So, the square root of 12 can be simplified as 2 * sqrt(3).