There are two main ways to calculate the Square Root of a number: perfect squares and long division. Generally speaking, the first method that uses perfect squares is one of the easier and efficient methods when the number you have is a perfect square. To reiterate, a perfect square occurs when the value of the square root is a whole value. On the other hand, long division is used when the value of the square root is a decimal or not a perfect square.
Our first attempt will be to try to see if we can use perfect squares. So, let's see if we can rewrite 256 as a product of a number times itself. Well, we know the common perfect square of:
Therefore:
Thus, helping us arrive at the conclusion that the Square Root of 256 is 16.