November 5, 2007

Rationalize the denominator: $\displaystyle\frac{\sqrt[3]{2}}{\sqrt[3]{2}+\sqrt[3]{3}}$.


Solution. 
We use the fact that
a^3+b^3 = (a+b)(a^2-ab+b^2).
Let $a=\sqrt[3]{2}$ and $b=\sqrt[3]{3}$. Then $a^3+b^3=5$ and we write
$\begin{eqnarray} \frac{\sqrt[3]{2}}{\sqrt[3]{2}+\sqrt[3]{3}} &=& \frac{\sqrt[3]{2}}{\sqrt[3]{2}+\sqrt[3]{3}}\cdot \frac{(\sqrt[3]{2})^2 - \sqrt[3]{2}\sqrt[3]{3} + (\sqrt[3]{3})^2}{(\sqrt[3]{2})^2 - \sqrt[3]{2}\sqrt[3]{3} + (\sqrt[3]{3})^2} \\ &=& \frac{\sqrt[3]{2} (\sqrt[3]{4} - \sqrt[3]{6}+\sqrt[3]{9})}{5} \\ &=& \frac{\sqrt[3]{6} - \sqrt[3]{12} + \sqrt[3]{18}}{5}. \end{eqnarray}$