Radicals - Day 2

In class, students were reminded to take the online practice EOCTs every week. Many students currently have 2 zeros recorded for the last two weeks.

Today's lesson continued the work with radicals: we solved equations that contain radicals. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Isolate the square root by removing every value that is on the side with the square root. Remember, undo addition/subtraction first. Then undo multiplication/division.
2. Square both sides of the equation to undo the square root.
3. Solve the equation. Our equations today are so basic, this step is not needed. The equation will be solved in step #2.
4. Check the solution.

It is always important to check solutions for equations to verify that no mistakes were made. It is doubly important with radical equations because it is possible to accurately arrive at a "solution" that doesn't actually solve the equation. This occurs when step #1 sets up the square root to be equal to a negative number, which is not possible. However, if step #2 is completed, students will still arrive at a value that presents itself to be the solution. When the extraneous solution is substituted into the original equation, the student should arrive at a false equation (where the two sides are not equivalent).

Homework: Worksheet on Solving Radical Equations (found on the back of the notes)

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