How do you simplify #4sqrt6 - sqrt6#?

1 Answer
May 23, 2015

Pretend for a moment that "Sqrt(6)" means "6-legged-squirrels"

Suppose you had #4# six-legged-squirrels and #1# six-legged-squirrel ran away; how many squirrels would you have left?

(Hopefully you answered #3# six-legged squirrels.)

If
#4# six-legged-squirrels #- 1# six-legged-squirrels #= 3# six-legged-squirrels
and
a "six-legged-squirrel" is really #sqrt(6)#

then
#4sqrt(6)-sqrt(6) = 3sqrt(6)#