WRITING RADICALS IN RATIONAL EXPONENT FORM

by Dr. Carol JVF Burns (website creator)
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• PRACTICE (online exercises and printable worksheets)
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When serious work needs to be done with radicals,
they are usually changed to a name that uses exponents,
so that the exponent laws can be used.

Also, this new name for radicals allows them to be approximated on any calculator that has a power key.

Here are the rational exponent names for radicals:

$\sqrt{x} = x^{1/2}$

$\root 3\of{x} = x^{1/3}$

$\root 4\of{x} = x^{1/4}$

$\root 5\of{x} = x^{1/5}$

and so on!

Regardless of the name used, the normal restrictions apply.
For example, $\,x^{1/2}\,$ is only defined for $\,x\ge 0\,$.

EXAMPLES:

Write in rational exponent form:

$\root 7\of {x} = x^{1/7}$
$\cssId{s19}{\sqrt{x^3}} \cssId{s20}{= (x^3)^{1/2}} \cssId{s21}{= x^{3/2}}$
$\displaystyle \cssId{s22}{\frac{1}{\sqrt{x}}} \cssId{s23}{= \frac{1}{x^{1/2}}} \cssId{s24}{= x^{-1/2}}$
$\displaystyle \cssId{s25}{\frac{3}{\root 5\of{x}}} \cssId{s26}{= \frac{3}{x^{1/5}}} \cssId{s27}{= 3x^{-1/5}}$
Master the ideas from this section

When you're done practicing, move on to:
CONCEPT QUESTIONS EXERCISE:
PROBLEM TYPES:
 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
AVAILABLE MASTERED IN PROGRESS
 Write in rational exponent form:
 (MAX is 12; there are 12 different problem types.)