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Glite Dictionary
🧠 Excusing actions ⚙️ Making efficient ➗ Simplifying math
rationalization

rationalization

7.9
Removing square roots from a math expression without changing its value
  • noun
  • /ˌræʃənəlaɪˈzeɪʃən/
  • Specialized
translation icon : racionalización
  • To solve the equation, the students learned how to perform the rationalization of the radical terms.

Examples

  • Rationalization helps to rewrite complex expressions in a more manageable form without changing their values.

  • Fairies, for instance, were beyond any possibility of rationalization, period.

    Blog text (29)

  • Until it does, the temptation to inflate will remain, as will economists with spurious mathematical rationalizations as to why such inflation will make everything okay.

    Blog text (6)

  • In mathematics, rationalization is often used to eliminate the square root from the denominator of a fraction, simplifying the expression.

Antonyms

to complicate
101 4.1

To make something harder to understand or do

Surface Forms

rationalization singular
rationalizations plural

Morphology

rationalization = rationalize (semi-transparent) = rational + ize + ation

Morphologically the noun is the standard nominalization of 'rationalize'; the formation is regular.

Etymology

Rationalization in math comes from the same root ratio, linked to 'number' or 'calculation'. In math it means removing roots so an expression uses simpler, 'rational' numbers, which makes calculations easier.