How do you get a square root?

Answer 1

For example, find √36.

Think, what number times itself makes 36?

6 x 6 = 36 or 6^2 = 36

Thus √36 = √6^2 = 6

In this case 36 is a perfect square.

Definition: A perfect square is an integer of the form n^2, where n is a positive integer.

The perfect squares are 1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36, 47, 64, 81, ...

You can estimate the value of a square root by finding the two perfect square consecutive numbers that the square root must be between. For example, estimate √29.

Since 29 is between 25 and 36,

√25 = 5 and √36 = 6

Thus, √29 is between 5 and 6.

If you want a better estimates for the value of √29, you can use the calculator and round the answer to the nearest thousands. So for √29 the calculator displays

5.385164807, round that to the nearest thousands. Since 1 < 5, then √29 ≈ 5.385 Either use a calculator or tables.

The only other way is trial and error;

# guess an answer # square it # compare 2 with the figure you are trying to find the square root of # adjust your guessand go back to 2