ALGEBRA II
Rationalizing i in the Denominator
Page 1
The imaginary number is a radical (it equals
), so it can’t stay in the
denominators of fractions. What should we do if we see in the denominator of a
fraction?
If there is exactly one term – multiply with
Example 1 Simplify
There is exactly one term (
) in the denominator, so we will multiply by .
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ALGEBRA II
Rationalizing i in the Denominator
Page 2
If there are two terms – use the conjugate
If the original is…,
then the conjugate is…
Example 2 Simplify
The denominator is
, so the conjugate is
The terms with in them
will “drop out” because
they add to zero… that’s
why we use the conjugate!
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