Dividing surds

Hi all,
I was wondering if someone could please help me with this question:
(sqrt5 + 3)/(sqrt5 - 3)
(Express in the form p sqrt5+q, where p and q are integers)

I know how to rationalise the denominator, it's just this I'm stuck on.
Many thanks. :smile:

EDIT: The forum has completely BUGGERED up the picture of my equation, so I'll write it out (apologies for the bad formatting)

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 1

Notnek

Original post by woodworm

Hi all,
I was wondering if someone could please help me with this question:
sqrt5 + 3/sqrt5 - 3
(Express in the form p sqrt5+q, where p and q are integers)

I know how to rationalise the denominator, it's just this I'm stuck on.
Many thanks. :smile:

EDIT: The forum has completely BUGGERED up the picture of my equation, so I'll write it out (apologies for the bad formatting)

Ambiguous notation.

Reply 2

username1518841

Original post by woodworm

EDIT: The forum has completely BUGGERED up the picture of my equation, so I'll write it out (apologies for the bad formatting)

Just gonna assum its ((sqrt 5)+3 )/((sqrt5)-3)

so you'll wanna multiply both top and bottom by sqrt +3 so that the bottom is in the format of (a+b)(a-b)
then just expand brackets and simplify