Remember that the phrase “rationalize the denominator” just means “get the square root(s) out of the denominator”. We already know how to rationalize the denominator if the denominator is just a single square root, and nothing else. But how do we rationalize the denominator when it’s more complicated than just a single square root? In some cases, we can use the conjugate method.
Read MoreConjugate method can only be used when either the numerator or denominator contains exactly two terms. In order to use it, we have to multiply by the conjugate of whichever part of the fraction contains the radical. The conjugate of two terms is those same two terms with the opposite sign in between them. Notice that we multiply both the numerator and denominator by the conjugate, because that’s like multiplying by 1, which doesn’t change the value of the original function.
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