Question

Can you add and subtract integers and surds together?

For example:
1. 2-2√6= √6
2. 25+ 5√5 + 5√5 +5= 40√5

or are the above examples wrong?

Answer 1

Both of these examples are wrong. You cannot add/subtract integers and square roots together, however, you could add square roots together if they have the same number under the square root. For example, 2 - 2√6 will stay as 2 - 2√6 because they aren't like terms. 25 + 5√5 + 5√5 + 5 = 30 + 10√5 because 25 + 5 = 30 and 5√5 + 5√5 = 10√5. We can add 5√5 and 5√5 together because they have the same number under the square root. If we were to compute √2 + √3, we would just leave it as is because they don't have the same number under the square root.