Squares and Roots

How to play

1. Read the question: for example 9² or √144.
2. Work it out or recall it.
3. Type the answer and press OK.

Choose Relaxed for ten questions with no clock, or Race to answer as many as you can in sixty seconds. After a wrong answer the game shows the right one and the reason. At the end it lists the questions you missed and keeps your best score for each level on this device.

Levels

• Level 1: Squares up to 12
• Level 2: Square roots
• Level 3: Cubes and cube roots
• Level 4: Powers of 2, 3, 5 and 10

Start at the level where about eight answers in ten are right, and move up when it feels easy.

What this game practises

Squares to 20 and cubes to 10 come up constantly from class 7 onwards: in Pythagoras, in area and volume, in algebra and in every competitive exam. Knowing them by heart turns a line of working into a glance. Powers of 2 and of 10 underlie computing and the way large and small numbers are written.

Tips for parents and teachers

• Squares grow by the odd numbers: 1, 4, 9, 16 go up by 3, 5, 7.
• For a square root, think of the table: which number times itself gives this?
• Learn five new squares a week, not all at once.

Play it without a screen

One player calls a number from 1 to 20 and the other says its square. Swap after ten. Then call square numbers and ask for the roots.

More games for classes 7 and 8

• Percent MatchWhich fraction is the same as 25%? What is 20% of 150? Choose the match.Classes 5 to 8
• Find xA simple equation. Work out the value of x and choose it.Classes 6 to 8
• Hit the TargetUse every number once, with any of the signs, to make the target number.Classes 3 to 8
• Magic SquareA three-by-three square with gaps. Fill it so that every row, column and diagonal has the same total.Classes 4 to 8

All games Games for classes 7 and 8