Calculating Square Root of a Number (Say, 3):

1. Group the digits of the given number in pairs. Start grouping from the decimal
point and proceed grouping the integer and fraction parts. If any digits are left
alone without a group add trailing zeros to complete the group.
Suppose the number given to us to calculate the square root is 345.879 then
we start grouping from the decimal point and toward left for the integer part
and towards right for the fraction part to get: 3 45 . 87 9
Since 3 in the integer part and 9 in the fraction part are left alone, we add
trailing zeros to complete the grouping. Thus, giving us 03 45 . 87 90
Since we want to calculate square root of three we would write it first as 3.0
and then group the digits in two as 03 . 00
2. Now we write it as
_________________
N | 03.00
3. Now we want to find the greatest such number N, starting from 1, whose
square is either 03 or less. We start with 1, square of which is 1. Now we
check 2, the square of it is 4. Since square of 2 is greater than 03, we take x
as 1 and write
1
--------------------------------------1 | 03.00
4. Now, like in division we perform subtraction of 1 x 1 from 3, giving us
1
--------------------------------------1 | 03.00
01
--------------------------------------2
5. As, in division we write decimal in quotient and bring down 0 writing it after 2.
But this time we bring the pair 00 instead of just single 0 remember we are
actually calculating square root and not just dividing, so our method is a bit
different than simple division.
1.
--------------------------------------1 | 03.00
01
--------------------------------------200

6. The process now deviates from simple division. First we will write the above
as
1.
--------------------------------------1 | 03.00
01
--------------------------------------R|
200
Then we multiply current divisor by 2, to get a new divisor R. Thus, 1 x 2 = 2.
Thus we write R=2, as
1.
--------------------------------------1 | 03.00
01
--------------------------------------2|
200
7. We now find a greatest digit d, such that (current-divisor d x d) is equal to
or less than current result of recent subtraction.
That is we have to find d, such that, 2d x d is less than or equal to 200. We
again start with d=1. If d = 1, we have 21 x 1 = 21; if d = 2, we have 22 x 2
= 44; id = 3, we have 23 x 3 = 69; if d = 4, we have 24 x 4 = 96; if d = 5, we
have 25 x 5 = 125; if d = 6, we have 26 x 6 = 156; if d = 7, we have 27 x 7 =
189; if d = 8, we have 28 x 8 = 204.
Thus, d=7 is the greatest such digit that 2d x d is less than or equal to 200.
We then make current-divisor d as our new divisor (here, 2 7) and d as the
next digit of the quotient; and we perform the subtraction as we usually do in
division. Thus we can write
1.7
--------------------------------------1 | 03.00
01
--------------------------------------27| 200
189
--------------------------------------11
If the remainder is zero we stop and the quotient is the square root we seek.
Or else we continue. Clearly in our example remainder (11) is not zero, thus
we continue to next step.
Remember that we can also stop after few get to a few places in fraction part
if that is what we seek. That is, we wanted to find square root until 4 decimal
places we can stop as soon as we have a quotient with 4 digits after the
decimal.

8. As in step six we write

1.7
--------------------------------------1 | 03.00
01
--------------------------------------27| 200
189
--------------------------------------R|
11
But before we proceed to find R, we will add the right-most digit of our
current divisor to the current divisor. That is, we add 7 to 27 giving us 7 + 27
= 34. This 34 will be our R, and we can write
1.7
--------------------------------------1 | 03.00
01
--------------------------------------27| 200
189
--------------------------------------34|
11
9. We now go to step 7.
We will write here the step we will take when we reach step 8 from 9, again and
again. Since we have run out of zeros we can add a pair of trailing zeros and
bring them down. Thus we have
1.7
--------------------------------------1 | 03.00 00
01
--------------------------------------27| 200
189
--------------------------------------34|
11 00
And we have to find d such that 34d x d 1100. We see that such digit is 3, so
we have

1.73
--------------------------------------1 | 03.00 00
01
--------------------------------------27| 200
189
--------------------------------------343|
1100
1029
---------------------------------------7100
We now add the right most digit, i.e. 3, to 343 giving us 346. We now have to
find greatest d such that 343d x d 7100. We see that d should be 2, giving us
1.732
--------------------------------------1 | 03.00 00 00
01
--------------------------------------27| 200
189
--------------------------------------3462|
1100
1029
---------------------------------------7100
6924
----------------------------------------176
We continue the process of adding trailing pair of zeros, i.e., 00 and bring them
down.
Remember, if we bring down a pair of zeros and the number is still less than the
divisor we will have to take d =0 and bring down another pair of zeros.