This week in Precalculus, we learned how to factor equations with radicals. It’s an important skill since radicals pop up in different units, and knowing how to factor them helps in solving a variety of problems.

Example 1:

step 1: isolate the radical 

step 2: get rid of the radicand by squaring everything. This removes the radical sign and squares the other side. Be careful because if we have a binomial on the other side we need to write it out twice and foil.

step 3: move everything to one side so we have 0 on one side. If your squared variable is positive on one side it’s better to move everything there because negative squared variables don’t look nice.

step 4: factor by prefered method (mine is grouping)

step 5: find out which number makes the equation equal to zero. we might have 1 answer or 2 answers.