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College Preparatory Mathematics

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Section 8.2 Higher Roots

Objective: Simplify radicals with an index greater than two.
While square roots are the most common type of radical we work with, we can take higher roots of numbers as well: cube roots, fourth roots, fifth roots, etc. Following is a definition of radicals.
am=b if bm=a
The small letter m inside the radical is called the index. It tells us which root we are taking, or which power we are "un-doing". For square roots the index is 2. As this is the most common root, the two is not usually written.
World View Note: The word for root comes from the French mathematician Franciscus Vieta in the late 16th century.
The following table includes several higher roots.
Table 8.2.1.
1253=5 643=4
814=3 1287=2
325=2 164= Undefined
We must be careful of a few things as we work with higher roots. First its important not to forget to check the index on the root. 81=9 but 814=3. This is because 92=81 and 34=81. Another thing to watch out for is negatives under roots. We can take an odd root of a negative number, because a negative number raised to an odd power is still negative. However, we cannot take an even root of a negative number, this we will say is undefined. In a later section we will discuss how to work with roots of negative, but for now we will simply say they are undefined.
We can simplify higher roots in much the same way we simplified square roots, using the product property of radicals.
 Product Property of Radicals: abm=ambm
Often we are not as familiar with higher powers as we are with squares. It is important to remember what index we are working with as we try and work our way to the solution.

Example 8.2.2.

543We are working with a cubed root, want third powers 23=8Test 223 = 854 is not divisible by 833=27Test 333 = 2754 is divisible by 27!2723Write as factors27323Product rule, take cubed root of 27323Our Solution
Just as with square roots, if we have a coefficient, we multiply the new coefficients together.

Example 8.2.3.

3484We are working with a fourth root, want fourth powers 24=16Test 224 = 1648 is divisible by 1631634Write as factors316434Product rule, take fourth root of 163234Multiply coefficients634Our Solution
We can also take higher roots of variables. As we do, we will divide the exponent on the variable by the index. Any whole answer is how many of that variable will come out of the square root. Any remainder is how many are left behind inside the square root. This is shown in the following examples.

Example 8.2.4.

x25y17z35Divide each exponent by 5, whole number outside, remainder inside x5y3y2z35,Our Solution 
x,255=5R0,x5xy,175=3R2,y3y2z,35=0R3,z3
The following example includes integers in our problem.

Example 8.2.5.

240a4b83Looking for cubes that divide into 40. The number 8 works! 285a4b83Take cube root of 8, dividing exponents on variables by 3 22ab25ab23Remainders are left in radical. Multiply coefficients 4ab25ab23Our Solution 

Exercises Exercises – Higher Roots

Exercise Group.

Simplify.