How can you add and subtract fractions with surds in them?

The square root sign can make fractions look a bit scary until you're familiar with it, that's the same with anything new! The important thing to remember is, the rules of algebra are the same - there are just be few things you can learn to deal with those tricky surds.Remember, you can only add fractions if the denominator (the number on the bottom), is the same.For example:3/8 + 1/4 = 3/8 + 2/8 = 5/8You already know how to do that!To solve: 1/rt2 + 1/4 we use the same methodmultiply through each fraction so that they have a common denominatoradd the numeratorssimplify answer if necessarye.g.4 /4 rt2 + rt2/ 4 rt2 = (4 + rt 2)/ 4 rt2This is correct! We just don't tend to like leaving surds on the bottom, so there's a neat trick you can use to make it look a bit nicer. In this example, you would just multiply through the top and bottom by rt 2/rt 2. This won't change the value of the fraction since it is equivalent to 1. Remember what the "square root" of a number means: the number which, when multiplied by itself, gives you the number inside the square root sign. This means that:numerator: (4 + rt2) x rt2 = 4 rt2 + 2denominator: 4 rt2 x rt2 = 4 x 2 = 8!So the surd on the bottom is cancelled out, and we can also divide through by 2 to give our answer as(2 rt 2 + 1 )/ 8