Surds introduction

What you'll learn

1. 1

   Imagine you have a square with area 2. How long is each side? It's a number that, when squared, gives 2 — we call this the square root of 2, written √2.

2. 2

   What is a surd?

3. 3

   Use the number line to find where √2 lives. It's between 1 and 2, closer to 1.4.

4. 4

   Let's simplify √8 together. Can we break it down?

5. 5

   What is √12 simplified?

6. 6

   Now you try! Simplify √18 by dragging the square tiles into a square number and the rest.

7. 7

   Which of these is a surd?