We'll use Big mode to make the formulas more readable.
___ 2 + V 2 1: (2 + sqrt(2)) / (1 + sqrt(2)) 1: -------- . ___ 1 + V 2 . ' (2+sqrt(2)) / (1+sqrt(2)) RET d B
Multiplying by the conjugate helps because (a+b) (a-b) = a^2 - b^2.
___ ___ 1: (2 + V 2 ) (V 2 - 1) . a r a/(b+c) := a*(b-c) / (b^2-c^2) RET
___ ___ 1: 2 + V 2 - 2 1: V 2 . . a r a*(b+c) := a*b + a*c a s
(We could have used a x instead of a rewrite rule for the second step.)
The multiply-by-conjugate rule turns out to be useful in many
different circumstances, such as when the denominator involves
sines and cosines or the imaginary constant i
.