Chapter 05 Squares and Square Roots
5.1 Introduction
You know that the area of a square
Side of a square (in cm) | Area of the square |
---|---|
1 | |
2 | |
3 | |
5 | |
8 | |
What is special about the numbers 4, 9, 25, 64 and other such numbers?
Since, 4 can be expressed as
Such numbers like
In general, if a natural number
We know that
Therefore 32 is not a square number.
Consider the following numbers and their squares.
Number | Square |
---|---|
1 | |
2 | |
3 | |
4 | |
5 | |
6 | —— |
7 | —— |
8 | —— |
9 | —— |
10 | —— |
From the above table, can we enlist the square numbers between 1 and 100? Are there any natural square numbers upto 100 left out?
You will find that the rest of the numbers are not square numbers.
The numbers
TRY THESE
1. Find the perfect square numbers between
(i) 30 and 40 (ii) 50 and 60
5.2 Properties of Square Numbers
Following table shows the squares of numbers from 1 to 20.
Number | Square | Number | Square |
---|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | 11 | 121 |
2 | 4 | 12 | 144 |
3 | 9 | 13 | 169 |
4 | 16 | 14 | 196 |
5 | 25 | 15 | 225 |
6 | 36 | 16 | 256 |
7 | 49 | 17 | 289 |
8 | 64 | 18 | 324 |
9 | 81 | 19 | 361 |
10 | 100 | 20 | 400 |
Study the square numbers in the above table. What are the ending digits (that is, digits in the units place) of the square numbers? All these numbers end with
Can we say that if a number ends in
TRY THESE
1. Can we say whether the following numbers are perfect squares? How do we know?
(i) 1057
(iv) 222222
Write five numbers which you can decide by looking at their units digit that they are not square numbers.
2. Write five numbers which you cannot decide just by looking at their units digit (or units place) whether they are square numbers or not.
- Study the following table of some numbers and their squares and observe the one’s place in both.
Table 1
Number | Square | Number | Square | Number | Square |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | 11 | 121 | 21 | 441 |
2 | 4 | 12 | 144 | 22 | 484 |
3 | 9 | 13 | 169 | 23 | 529 |
4 | 16 | 14 | 196 | 24 | 576 |
5 | 25 | 15 | 225 | 25 | 625 |
6 | 36 | 16 | 256 | 30 | 900 |
7 | 49 | 17 | 289 | 35 | 1225 |
8 | 64 | 18 | 324 | 40 | 1600 |
9 | 81 | 19 | 361 | 45 | 2025 |
10 | 100 | 20 | 400 | 50 | 2500 |
The following square numbers end with digit 1.
Square | Number |
---|---|
1 | 1 |
81 | 9 |
121 | 11 |
361 | 19 |
441 | 21 |
TRY THESE
Which of
Write the next two square numbers which end in 1 and their corresponding numbers.
You will see that if a number has 1 or 9 in the units place, then it’s square ends in 1.
- Let us consider square numbers ending in 6.
Square | Number |
---|---|
16 | 4 |
36 | 6 |
196 | 14 |
256 | 16 |
TRY THESE
Which of the following numbers would have digit 6 at unit place.
(i)
We can see that when a square number ends in 6, the number whose square it is, will have either 4 or 6 in unit’s place.
Can you find more such rules by observing the numbers and their squares (Table 1)?
TRY THESE
What will be the “one’s digit” in the square of the following numbers?
(i) 1234 (ii) 26387 (iii) 52698 (iv) 99880 (v) 21222 (vi) 9106
- Consider the following numbers and their squares.

If a number contains 3 zeros at the end, how many zeros will its square have?
What do you notice about the number of zeros at the end of the number and the number of zeros at the end of its square?
Can we say that square numbers can only have even number of zeros at the end?
- See Table 1 with numbers and their squares.
What can you say about the squares of even numbers and squares of odd numbers?
TRY THISE
1. The square of which of the following numbers would be an odd number/an even number? Why?
(i) 727
2. What will be the number of zeros in the square of the following numbers? (i) 60 (ii) 400
5.3 Some More Interesting Patterns
1. Adding triangular numbers.
Do you remember triangular numbers (numbers whose dot patterns can be arranged as triangles)?
* | * ** | |||
* | ||||
1 | 3 | 6 | 10 | 15 |
If we combine two consecutive triangular numbers, we get a square number, like



2. Numbers between square numbers
Let us now see if we can find some interesting pattern between two consecutive square numbers.
Between
Between
Now,
Therefore,
Between
We have
Therefore,
Between 16
Consider
We find that between
Thus, in general we can say that there are
TRY THESE
1. How many natural numbers lie between
2. How many non square numbers lie between the following pairs of numbers
(i)
3. Adding odd numbers
Consider the following
So we can say that the sum of first
Looking at it in a different way, we can say: ‘If the number is a square number, it has to be the sum of successive odd numbers starting from 1.
Consider those numbers which are not perfect squares, say 2, 3, 5, 6, … Can you express these numbers as a sum of successive odd natural numbers beginning from 1 ? You will find that these numbers cannot be expressed in this form. Consider the number 25 . Successively subtract
(i)
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)
(v)
This means,
Now consider another number 38 , and again do as above.
(i)
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)
(v)
(vi)
(vii)
This shows that we are not able to express 38 as the
TRY THESE
Find whether each of the following numbers is a perfect square or not?
(i) 121
(ii) 55
(iii) 81
(iv) 49
(v) 69 sum of consecutive odd numbers starting with 1 . Also, 38 is not a perfect square.
So we can also say that if a natural number cannot be expressed as a sum of successive odd natural numbers starting with 1, then it is not a perfect square.
We can use this result to find whether a number is a perfect square or not.
4. A sum of consecutive natural numbers


TRY THESE
1. Express the following as the sum of two consecutive integers.
(i)
2. Do you think the reverse is also true, i.e., is the sum of any two consecutive positive integers is perfect square of a number? Give example to support your answer.
5. Product of two consecutive even or odd natural numbers
Also
Therefore,
Similarly,
So in general we can say that
6. Some more patterns in square numbers
Observe the squares of numbers;

Another interesting pattern.
TRY THESE
The fun is in being able to find out why this happens. May be it would be interesting for you to explore and think about such questions even if the answers come some years later.
Write the square, making use of the above pattern.
(i)
(ii)
TRY THESE
Can you find the square of the following numbers using the above pattern?
(i)
EXERCISE 5.1
1. What will be the unit digit of the squares of the following numbers?
(i) 81
(v) 1234
(ix) 12796
2. The following numbers are obviously not perfect squares. Give reason.
(i) 1057
(v) 64000
3. The squares of which of the following would be odd numbers?
(i) 431
4. Observe the following pattern and find the missing digits.
5. Observe the following pattern and supply the missing numbers.
6. Using the given pattern, find the missing numbers.
To find pattern
Third number is related to first and second number. How?
Fourth number is related to third number. How?
7. Without adding, find the sum.
(i)
(ii)
(iii)
8. (i) Express 49 as the sum of 7 odd numbers.
(ii) Express 121 as the sum of 11 odd numbers.
9. How many numbers lie between squares of the following numbers?
(i) 12 and 13
5.4 Finding the Square of a Number
Squares of small numbers like
The answer is not so easy and we may need to multiply 23 by 23 .
There is a way to find this without having to multiply
We know
Example 1 : Find the square of the following numbers without actual multiplication. (i) 39 (ii) 42
Solution: (i)
(ii)
5.4.1 Other patterns in squares
Consider the following pattern:
Now can you find the square of 95 ?
TRY THESE
Consider a number with unit digit 5 , i.e.,
Find the squares of the following numbers containing 5 in unit’s place.
(i) 15
5.4.2 Pythagorean triplets
Consider the following
The collection of numbers 3, 4 and 5 is known as Pythagorean triplet. 6, 8, 10 is also a Pythagorean triplet, since
Again, observe that
Can you find more such triplets?
For any natural number
Try to find some more Pythagorean triplets using this form.
Example 2 : Write a Pythagorean triplet whose smallest member is 8.
Solution: We can get Pythagorean triplets by using general form
Let us first take
So,
Therefore,
The triplet is thus
So, let us try
then
We get
and
The triplet is
Example 3 : Find a Pythagorean triplet in which one member is 12.
Solution: If we take
Then,
Then the value of
So, we try to take
So, let us take
then
Thus,
Therefore, the required triplet is
Note: All Pythagorean triplets may not be obtained using this form. For example another triplet 5, 12, 13 also has 12 as a member.
EXERCISE 5.2
1. Find the square of the following numbers.
(i) 32
(v) 71
2. Write a Pythagorean triplet whose one member is.
(i) 6
5.5 Square Roots
Study the following situations.
(a) Area of a square is
We know that the area of a square
If we assume the length of the side to be ’
To find the length of side it is necessary to find a number whose square is 144 .
(b) What is the length of a diagonal of a square of side
Can we use Pythagoras theorem to solve this?
We have,
i.e.,
Again to get

Fig 5.1
(c) In a right triangle the length of the hypotenuse and a side are respectively
Can you find the third side?
Let
Using Pythagoras theorem
Again, to find

Fig 5.2
In all the above cases, we need to find a number whose square is known. Finding the number with the known square is known as finding the square root.
5.5.1 Finding square roots
The inverse (opposite) operation of addition is subtraction and the inverse operation of multiplication is division. Similarly, finding the square root is the inverse operation of squaring.
We have,
TRY THESE
Since
(i)
(ii)
THINK, DISCUSS AND WRITE
From the above, you may say that there are two integral square roots of a perfect square number. In this chapter, we shall take up only positive square root of a natural number.
Positive square root of a number is denoted by the symbol
For example:
Statement | Inference | Statement | Inference |
---|---|---|---|
5.5.2 Finding square root through repeated subtraction
Do you remember that the sum of the first
Consider
(i)
(vi)
TRY THESE
By repeated subtraction of odd numbers starting from 1 , find whether the following numbers are perfect squares or not? If the number is a perfect square then find its square root.
(i) 121
(ii) 55
(iii) 36
(iv) 49
(v) 90
From 81 we have subtracted successive odd numbers starting from 1 and obtained 0 at
Therefore
Can you find the square root of 729 using this method? Yes, but it will be time consuming. Let us try to find it in a simpler way.
5.5.3 Finding square root through prime factorisation
Consider the prime factorisation of the following numbers and their squares.
Prime factorisation of a Number | Prime factorisation of its Square |
---|---|
How many times does 2 occur in the prime factorisation of 6 ? Once. How many times does 2 occur in the prime factorisation of 36 ? Twice. Similarly, observe the occurrence of 3 in 6 and 36 of 2 in 8 and 64 etc.
You will find that each prime factor in the prime factorisation of the square of a number, occurs twice the number of times it occurs in the prime factorisation of the number itself. Let us use this to find the square root of a given square number, say 324.
We know that the prime factorisation of 324 is
2 | 324 |
---|---|
162 | |
3 | 81 |
3 | 27 |
9 | |
3 |
By pairing the prime factors, we get
So,
Similarly can you find the square root of 256 ? Prime factorisation of 256 is
By pairing the prime factors we get,
Therefore,
Is 48 a perfect square?
We know
Since all the factors are not in pairs so 48 is not a perfect square.
2 | 256 |
---|---|
2 | 128 |
2 | 64 |
2 | 32 |
2 | 16 |
2 | 8 |
2 | 4 |
2 |
Suppose we want to find the smallest multiple of 48 that is a perfect square, how should we proceed? Making pairs of the prime factors of 48 we see that 3 is the only factor that does not have a pair. So we need to multiply by 3 to complete the pair.
Hence
Can you tell by which number should we divide 48 to get a perfect square?
The factor 3 is not in pair, so if we divide 48 by 3 we get
Example 4 : Find the square root of 6400.
Solution: Write
Therefore
Example 5 : Is 90 a perfect square?
Solution: We have
2 | 90 |
---|---|
3 | 45 |
15 | |
5 |
The prime factors 2 and 5 do not occur in pairs. Therefore, 90 is not a perfect square.
That 90 is not a perfect square can also be seen from the fact that it has only one zero.
Example 6 : Is 2352 a perfect square? If not, find the smallest multiple of 2352 which is a perfect square. Find the square root of the new number.
Solution: We have
As the prime factor 3 has no pair, 2352 is not a perfect square.
If 3 gets a pair then the number will become perfect square. So, we multiply 2352 by 3 to get,
Now each prime factor is in a pair. Therefore,
2 | 2352 |
---|---|
2 | 1176 |
2 | 588 |
2 | 294 |
3 | 147 |
7 | 49 |
7 |
And,
Example 7 : Find the smallest number by which 9408 must be divided so that the quotient is a perfect square. Find the square root of the quotient.
Solution: We have,
If we divide 9408 by the factor 3 , then
And,
2 | |
---|---|
3 | |
3 | |
5 | |
Example 8 : Find the smallest square number which is divisible by each of the numbers 6,9 and 15 .
Solution: This has to be done in two steps. First find the smallest common multiple and then find the square number needed. The least number divisible by each one of 6,9 and 15 is their LCM. The LCM of 6,9 and 15 is
Prime factorisation of 90 is
We see that prime factors 2 and 5 are not in pairs. Therefore 90 is not a perfect square.
In order to get a perfect square, each factor of 90 must be paired. So we need to make pairs of 2 and 5 . Therefore, 90 should be multiplied by
EXERCISE 5.3
1. What could be the possible ‘one’s’ digits of the square root of each of the following numbers?
(i) 9801
2. Without doing any calculation, find the numbers which are surely not perfect squares.
(i) 153
3. Find the square roots of 100 and 169 by the method of repeated subtraction.
4. Find the square roots of the following numbers by the Prime Factorisation Method.
(i) 729
(v) 7744
(ix) 529
5. For each of the following numbers, find the smallest whole number by which it should be multiplied so as to get a perfect square number. Also find the square root of the square number so obtained.
(i) 252
(iv) 2028
6. For each of the following numbers, find the smallest whole number by which it should be divided so as to get a perfect square. Also find the square root of the square number so obtained.
(i) 252
(iv) 2645
7. The students of Class VIII of a school donated ₹ 2401 in all, for Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund. Each student donated as many rupees as the number of students in the class. Find the number of students in the class.
8. 2025 plants are to be planted in a garden in such a way that each row contains as many plants as the number of rows. Find the number of rows and the number of plants in each row.
9. Find the smallest square number that is divisible by each of the numbers 4,9 and 10 .
10. Find the smallest square number that is divisible by each of the numbers 8,15 and 20 .
5.5.4 Finding square root by division method
When the numbers are large, even the method of finding square root by prime factorisation becomes lengthy and difficult. To overcome this problem we use Long Division Method.
For this we need to determine the number of digits in the square root.
See the following table:
Number | Square | |
---|---|---|
10 | 100 | which is the smallest 3-digit perfect square |
31 | 961 | which is the greatest 3-digit perfect square |
32 | 1024 | which is the smallest 4-digit perfect square |
99 | 9801 | which is the greatest 4-digit perfect square |
So, what can we say about the number of digits in the square root if a perfect square is a 3-digit or a 4-digit number? We can say that, if a perfect square is a 3-digit or a 4-digit number, then its square root will have 2-digits.
Can you tell the number of digits in the square root of a 5-digit or a 6-digit perfect square?
The smallest 3-digit perfect square number is 100 which is the square of 10 and the greatest 3-digit perfect square number is 961 which is the square of 31 . The smallest 4-digit square number is 1024 which is the square of 32 and the greatest 4-digit number is 9801 which is the square of 99 .
THINK, DISCUSS AND WRITE
Can we say that if a perfect square is of
The use of the number of digits in square root of a number is useful in the following method:
- Consider the following steps to find the square root of 529.
Can you estimate the number of digits in the square root of this number?
Step 1 Place a bar over every pair of digits starting from the digit at one’s place. If the number of digits in it is odd, then the left-most single digit too will have a bar.
Thus we have,
Step 2 Find the largest number whose square is less than or equal to the number under the extreme left bar


23 | |
---|---|
2 | |
-4 | |
43 | 129 |
-129 | |
0 |

Step 3 Bring down the number under the next bar (i.e., 29 in this case) to the right of the remainder. So the new dividend is 129.
Step 4 Double the quotient and enter it with a blank on its right.
Step 5 Guess a largest possible digit to fill the blank which will also become the new digit in the quotient, such that when the new divisor is multiplied to the new quotient the product is less than or equal to the dividend.
In this case
As
Step 6 Since the remainder is 0 and no digits are left in the given number, therefore,
- Now consider
Step 1 Place a bar over every pair of digits starting from the one’s digit. (
Step 2 Find the largest number whose square is less than or equal to the number under the left-most bar
Step 3 Bring down the number under the next bar (i.e., 96) to the right of the remainder. The new dividend is 496 .
Step 4 Double the quotient and enter it with a blank on its right.
Step 5 Guess a largest possible digit to fill the blank which also becomes the new digit in the quotient such that when the new digit is multiplied to the new quotient the product is less than or equal to the dividend. In this case we see that
So the new digit in the quotient is 4 . Get the remainder.
Step 6 Since the remainder is 0 and no bar left, therefore,
Estimating the number
We use bars to find the number of digits in the square root of a perfect square number.
In both the numbers 529 and 4096 there are two bars and the number of digits in their square root is 2. Can you tell the number of digits in the square root of 14400 ?
By placing bars we get
TRY THESE
Without calculating square roots, find the number of digits in the square root of the following numbers.
(i) 25600
Example 9 : Find the square root of :
(i) 729
(ii) 1296
Solution:
(i)

(ii)

Example 10 : Find the least number that must be subtracted from 5607 so as to get a perfect square. Also find the square root of the perfect square.
Solution: Let us try to find
This means if we subtract the remainder from the number, we get a perfect square.
Therefore, the required perfect square is

Example 11 : Find the greatest 4-digit number which is a perfect square.
Solution: Greatest number of 4-digits
This means if we subtract the remainder from the number, we get a perfect square.
Therefore, the required perfect square is
And,

Example 12 : Find the least number that must be added to 1300 so as to get a perfect square. Also find the square root of the perfect square.
Solution: We find
This shows that
Next perfect square number is
Hence, the number to be added is

5.6 Square Roots of Decimals
Consider
Step 1 To find the square root of a decimal number we put bars on the integral part (i.e., 17) of the number in the usual manner. And place bars on the decimal part
(i.e., 64) on every pair of digits beginning with the first decimal place. Proceed as usual. We get
Step 2
Now proceed in a similar manner. The left most bar is on 17 and
Step 3 The remainder is 1 . Write the number under the next bar (i.e., 64) to the right of this remainder, to get 164 .
Step 4 Double the divisor and enter it with a blank on its right. Since 64 is the decimal part so put a decimal point in the quotient.
We know
Step 6 Since the remainder is 0 and no bar left, therefore

Example 13 : Find the square root of 12.25.
Solution:

Which way to move
Consider a number 176.341. Put bars on both integral part and decimal part. In what way is putting bars on decimal part different from integral part? Notice for 176 we start from the unit’s place close to the decimal and move towards left. The first bar is over 76 and the second bar over 1. For .341, we start from the decimal and move towards right. First bar is over 34 and for the second bar we put 0 after 1 and make

Example 14 : Area of a square plot is
Solution: Area of square plot
Therefore,
We find that,
Thus, the side of the square plot is
Example 15 : There are 2401 students in a school. P.T. teacher wants them to stand in rows and columns such that the number of rows is equal to the number of columns. Find the number of rows.
Solution: Let the number of rows be
Therefore, number of students
Thus,
The number of rows

EXERCISE 5.4
1. Find the square root of each of the following numbers by Division method.
(i) 2304
(v) 3249
(ix) 576
2. Find the number of digits in the square root of each of the following numbers (without any calculation).
(i) 64
(v) 390625
3. Find the square root of the following decimal numbers.
(i) 2.56
(v) 31.36
4. Find the least number which must be subtracted from each of the following numbers so as to get a perfect square. Also find the square root of the perfect square so obtained.
(i) 402
(v) 4000
5. Find the least number which must be added to each of the following numbers so as to get a perfect square. Also find the square root of the perfect square so obtained.
(i) 525
(v) 6412
6. Find the length of the side of a square whose area is
7. In a right triangle
(a) If
(b) If
8. A gardener has 1000 plants. He wants to plant these in such a way that the number of rows and the number of columns remain same. Find the minimum number of plants he needs more for this.
9. There are 500 children in a school. For a P.T. drill they have to stand in such a manner that the number of rows is equal to number of columns. How many children would be left out in this arrangement.
WHAT HAVE WE DISCUSSED?
1. If a natural number
2. All square numbers end with
3. Square numbers can only have even number of zeros at the end.
4. Square root is the inverse operation of square.
5. There are two integral square roots of a perfect square number.