This is a page of notes to help students determine if absolute value signs are needed when simplifying a radical expression. This handout is helpful to my students and I am always amazed at how they keep trying to determine if an answer needs the absolute value signs, long after the text bails out and tells them to assume the radicand is nonnegative. I usually give extra credit on a test is students can figure out a complicated radical expression with the appropriate absolute values indicated.