TITLE: Basis for $\mathbb Q (\sqrt2 , \sqrt3 )$ over $\mathbb Q$
QUESTION [8 upvotes]: List a basis for $\mathbb K =\mathbb Q (\sqrt2 , \sqrt3 )$ as a vector space over $\mathbb Q $. 
I don't know how people come to the conclusion of a claimed basis. Like I am pretty sure that we just claim $\{1, \sqrt2 , \sqrt3, \sqrt6 \}$ is a basis and then prove that it is LI and it is a spanning set of $\mathbb K$ but how do you even think of this claim? That is my first question. I know that the dimension of $\mathbb K$ is $4$ so the basis should have $4$ elements but it doesn't really tell you which $4$ specifically.
Secondly, to prove that these are LI:
$1$ is LI to all the other elements clearly since the others are irrational and $1$ is rational. Not sure on how the other three are LI to each other though.
Also I am unsure on the spanning part.

REPLY [7 votes]: You can note that $\sqrt{3}$ has degree $2$ over $\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{2})$, because
$$
(a+b\sqrt{2})^2=3
$$
leads to
$$
a^2+2b^2=3,\qquad 2ab=0
$$
which has no solution in the rational numbers. Therefore $\{1,\sqrt{3}\}$ is a basis of $\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{2},\sqrt{3})$ over $\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{2})$, which in turn has $\{1,\sqrt{2}\}$ as a basis over $\mathbb{Q}$. The standard proof of the dimension theorem says that
$$
\{1\cdot 1,1\cdot\sqrt{2},1\cdot\sqrt{3},\sqrt{2}\cdot\sqrt{3}\}
$$
is a basis of $\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{2},\sqrt{3})$ over $\mathbb{Q}$.