Squares and Cubes

In math, you often must multiply a number by itself. A good example is when you compute the area of a square:

AREA = 5 X 5 = 25 square inches
We use a notation that looks like this for a square:

It tells you how many times to multiply a number by itself. See if you can fill out this table of squares:
Sometimes you must multiply a number by itself twice. For example, when you compute the volume of a cube:
We use a notation that looks like this for a cube:
VOLUME = 5 x 5 x 5 = 53 = 125 sq. in.
Pronounced "Volume equals five cubed"


These little raised numbers are called exponents

Square Roots

The opposite of a square is a square root.

The symbol for a square root is

So if 22 = 4, then

Pronounced "the square root of 4 is 2".

See if you can fill in this table:



You can compute square roots by using the key on your calculator. Just enter your number, then hit and PRESTO!! you have your number's square root. This is especially useful for finding the square roots of decimals.

Try this : find the square root of 3.24 using your calculator.