Approximating square roots to tenths

Introduction

Have you ever tried to find the square root of a number, such as 30 or 8, and realized it wasn’t a nice, whole number? That’s because not all numbers have perfect square roots. But we can still estimate them pretty closely—usually to the nearest tenth. Approximating...

Imagine you and your friend setting up cones for a square practice grid on a soccer field measuring 71 square meters. She asks, “How long is each side?”

To determine the length of the side of the square, find the square root of 71.

But 71 isn’t a perfect square, so we have to approximate.

First, find the two...