Question #c2eb1

1 Answer
Mar 14, 2017

It doesn't simplify nicely.

Explanation:

You could call -sqrt(42)-sqrt(42)
-2sqrt(42) if you wanted, the same as calling -x-x
negative -2x.
Then, if you think of 2 as sqrt(4), then you could call it -sqrt(4)sqrt(42)
Using the rule sqrt(a)sqrt(b)=sqrt(a*b), you end up with -sqrt(168). However, that doesn't simplify nicely, so that's about as far as you can go without getting a nasty decimal number (-12.9614814).
In fact, you probably would want to leave it as -2sqrt(42), since that is the simplest radical possible.