Simplifying $\sqrt[4]{161-72 \sqrt{5}}$ $$\sqrt[4]{161-72 \sqrt{5}}$$
I tried to solve this as follows:
the resultant will be in the form of $a+b\sqrt{5}$ since 5 is a prime and has no other factors other than 1 and itself. Taking this expression to the 4th power gives $a^4+4 \sqrt{5} a^3 b+30 a^2 b^2+20 \sqrt{5} a b^3+25 b^4$. The integer parts of this must be equal to $161$ and the coeffecients of the roots must add to $-72$. You thus get the simultaneous system:
$$a^4+30 a^2 b^2+25 b^4=161$$
$$4 a^3 b+20 a b^3=-72$$
In an attempt to solve this, I first tried to factor stuff and rewrite it as:
$$\left(a^2+5 b^2\right)^2+10 (a b)^2=161$$
$$4 a b \left(a^2+5 b^2\right)=-72$$
Then letting $p = a^2 + 5b^2$ and $q = ab$ you get
$$4 p q=-72$$
$$p^2+10 q^2=161$$
However, solving this yields messy roots. Am I going on the right path?

A (more complicated) approach that works on any nested radical, would be to use the Zippel Denesting Theorem.
$\sqrt[4]{161-72\sqrt{5}}$ is a fourth power exponent in $\mathbb{Q}(\sqrt{5})$ so setting the radical equal to its primitive root of unity and finding its roots gives us the simplification.
So we have: $\sqrt[4]{161-72\sqrt{5}}=x\iff x^4+72\sqrt{5}-161=0\iff (\sqrt{5}-2-x)(x+\sqrt{5}-2)(4\sqrt{5}-9-x^2)=0$ with the first one giving the correct denesting of $\sqrt{5}-2$.
