Any helpful hints for radical expressions?

Question

I am having trouble with finding the LCD .

Answer 1

First of all, it isn't REALLY important to find the LCD when simplifying a sum of fractions. You can start by finding ANY common denominator, for example by multiplying all the denominators together. It's just more work if it's not the LCD.

Second, a hugely helpful fact is that (a+b)(a-b) = a^2 - b^2. You can use that to make a lot of square root signs in denominators go away. This is generally at the cost of getting more square root signs in your numerators, but even so it's still often a major incremental step in the simplification process.