Why can't you have radicals in the denominator?

Pre-College Topics High School Life
1

<p>I find it silly how math teachers get so anal about this, anybody know why?</p>

2

<p>Because it’s illegal in the Math world, or something like that…</p>

3

<p>Because Obama signed it into law.</p>

4

<p>Having a standard form makes it easier for teachers to grade stuff quickly.</p>

5

<p>idk everyone in my calculus class leaves radicals in the denominator and my teacher doesn’t even care anymore… it’s also left in the denominator in our textbook answers lol</p>

<p>but i remember in algebra two my teacher would freak out and give you a zero for the entire problem if you had a radical in the denominator ha</p>

6

<p>It’s formal and easier to compute for the eyes, in higher level classes they don’t care because they expect you to do it in a heart beat.</p>

7

<p>Well yeah, cause I’m in Pre Calc and when you have to do some of the stuff with the Unit Circle and Trig it is becoming really annoying that I can’t leave a radical in the denominator.</p>

8

<p>It’s improper for some reason… but personally I find 1/(sqrt2) easier to process than (sqrt2)/2… </p>

<p>I’ve never had a teacher be too much of a stickler about it though</p>

9

<p>I don’t see what’s so hard about rationalizing it out…
It’s a teacher preference though. Some here are fine with it, some aren’t</p>

10

<p>I think it depends on what level math you are taking and your teachers. Anything post-Algebra 2 means teachers don’t care as much, at least in my situation. If anything, they encourage us to leave radicals on the bottom so that we don’t waste time converting on tests.</p>

11

<p>It is a mathematical convention to not have radicals in the denominator. But really it depends on the teacher whether they enforce it or not.</p>

12

<p>In Algebra 2, we weren’t allowed to keep radicals in the denominator.
In trig, nobody cared.
I don’t see the big deal, but then again, math isn’t something I go that crazy over anyway.</p>

13

<p>In Algebra I/II it really did seem like a waste of time for us to have to learn how to rationalize expressions, but it’s a great skill to have in Calculus and classes above it. Rationalizing can help a lot when evaluating limits, derivatives, or antiderivatives, for instance.</p>

14

<p>My Algebra 2 teacher was really picky about radicals in the denominator but my precalc and calc teachers don’t care at all.</p>