Learning Resources

Focus I: Irrational Equations

1. Isolate the radical on one side of the equation.
2. Square both sides of the equation to get rid of the square root function.
3. Solve the equation for the given variable.
4. Identify any existing extraneous roots and reject them. This last step is understood to be a natural part of the process of solving irrational equations. Thus, you may not always be instructed to check for extraneous roots. It is assumed that you will automatically do so.