N8b – Surds

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Prerequisites

A starting point

Drag down the slider on the right, answering each question as you go.

Part 1 – Simplifying expressions involving surds

Teacher resources for Part 1

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  • Slides in PPTX (with click-to-reveal answers)
  • Slides in PDF (one slide per page, suitable for importing into IWB software)
Links to past exam and UKMT questions

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Geoboard activity

  • By creating a square with an area of 2 square units and another square with an area of 8 square units, show that \(\sqrt{8}=2\sqrt{2}\).
  • Can you create two squares to help illustrate that \(\sqrt{18}=3\sqrt{2}\)?
  • Can you create two squares to help illustrate that \(\sqrt{20}=2\sqrt{5}\)?
Unlimited practice questions: simplifying surds
With thanks to pirsquared, whose Surds worksheet is available here. Material modified and embedded here under the CC-BY-SA 3.0 license.

Part 2 – Rationalising denominators

Teacher resources for Part 2

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  • Slides in PPTX (with click-to-reveal answers)
  • Slides in PDF (one slide per page, suitable for importing into IWB software)
Links to past exam questions

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In the real world

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