Estimating Roots

Sarah Allott
www.drfrost.org
@DrFrostMaths

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Last modified: 15th March 2024 in England and Wales (no 1194954)
Teacher Notes
Prerequisite Knowledge Representations Used Future Links
• Root notation • (Double) number • Estimation and
• Use of a calculator lines approximation
to find a root • Surds

Key: Key Points Solution step – All slides include pedagogical

click to reveal detail in the ‘Notes’ section
! To be written for each slide.
in books Question/Discussion
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Prompt in England and Wales (no 1194954)
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Recap Green click-to-reveal boxes.
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putting into context of other mathematical concepts (past and green click-to-reveal boxes.
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Recap – Powers and Roots Show all
solutions

1 Calculate the following, giving 2 List the first square

your answers to decimal places: numbers.
a ?
,,,,,,,
b ? , , , ?, ,
,,
c ?

3 List the first cube numbers.

d ?

,,,,,
?
,
e ?

f ?
Estimating a Root
Determine to d.p.

Professor Cheng, could a

Yes,
question like this be onitacould. We call this estimating
a root. We can use our knowledge of
non-calculator paper?
square numbers to help!

Logan Professor Cheng

How could using square numbers help determine to d.p.?

We can use our knowledge of square numbers to help us

?
‘home in’ on an estimated answer.
Estimating a Square Root
Determine to d.p.

To start with, let’s think about deciding which two integers the root is in
between. Start by thinking about the square integers either side of .

64 72 81

8 9

is between and .

Therefore, will in between and .

√ 64=8 √ 81=9
64 <72<81
∴ 8< √ 72< 9
Quickfire Questions
a Which two integers is between? b Which two integers is between?

? ?

c Which two integers is between? d Which two integers is between?

? ?
Estimating a Square Root
Determine to d.p.

We have determined that is between and .

The top
And therefore, will in between and . number line is
We can build a double number line with this information. split into ones

The bottom
We can see that is close, but not
number line is
quite half-way between &
split into tenths
64 72 81

8 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6 8.7 8.8 8.9 9

We can see that is
between and , but it is
√ 𝟕𝟐 The scales on each number line
closer to are different. This is because
there is a difference of ones
between & , but as there is only
From this, we can say that (to 1 d.p.) a difference of one between & ,
so we use tenths.

How could we make a more What is a sensible

accurate estimate? estimate to d.p?
Which Students Have Made Mistakes?
Three students are using number lines to estimate . Two of them have
made mistakes. What are the mistakes, and who is correct?

49 56 64
Basma is correct!
7 8
Basma
√ 𝟓𝟔≈ 𝟕 . 𝟓
49 56 66
Hannah thinks that
7 8
Hannah
√ 𝟓𝟔≈ 𝟕. 𝟒
49 56 64
Nathan has done the same division on the bottom
number line, rather than tenths. This makes it
harder to estimate.
7 8
Nathan
√ 𝟓𝟔≈ 𝟕 . 𝟕
Quickfire Questions
a Estimate correct to 1.d.p. 𝟑 ?. 𝟕
9 14 16

Number Line ?
3
√ 𝟏𝟒 4

b Estimate correct to 1.d.p. 𝟕?. 𝟏

49 50 64

Number Line ?
7
√ 𝟓𝟎 8

c Estimate correct to 1.d.p. 𝟏𝟏?. 𝟐

121 125 144

Number Line ?
11
√ 𝟏𝟐𝟓 12

d Estimate correct to 1.d.p.

or
?
Estimating a Square Root

It’s really hard to We can still answer the

question without drawing a
get the divisions number line – we can use our
number sense instead!
on the number
lines to be
equally spaced!
What if I make a
mistake?

We can still use the closest square

numbers to help us estimate the
square root of a number without a
number line.
Mari Mrs Clark
a Let’s look at an example that uses this
method.
Estimating a Square Root
Determine to d.p.
We can see that the And the difference
difference between between & is
& is Therefore, is
closer to than
8 9

64 72 81

8 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 √ 𝟕𝟐8.5 8.6 8.7 8.8 8.9 9

8 9
17 17
This means that is
away from
From this, we can say that
8 (to 1 d.p.)
≈ 0.5
17
Example
Determine to d.p.

Thinking about the closest square numbers to , we know that:

Therefore, must lie between and .

is away from , and away from .

Therefore will be closer to .

As is away from , we can estimate that…

(1 d.p.)
Example Test Your Understanding
a)a Which two integers does lie in a)a Which two integers does lie in
between? between?
b)b Hence, estimate correct to 1 b)b Hence, estimate correct to 1
d.p. d.p.

a We know that: a
Square Numbers

Therefore is between and .

Therefore, must lie between and . ?

b is away from , and away from b is away from , and away from

So, will be closer to . So, will be closer to .

As is away from , a reasonable As is away Reasoning

from , a reasonable
estimate would be… estimate would be…
(1 d.p.) (1 d.p.)

?
Multi-Choice Question

7.47. 67.88.0
Multi-Choice Question

13.313.413.513.6
Multi-Choice Question

4.04.14.24.3
Estimating a Square Root

When I estimated , I got . I understand

the reasoning, but I thought was far
enough from to give a root of .

Does that matter?

Abdi

No, these types of questions are marked using a range.

This means that there is a narrow range of possible
answers that will be accepted

Professor Cheng
Quickfire Questions
a Estimate correct to 1 d.p. b Estimate correct to 1 d.p.

𝟔 . 𝟓≤ √𝟒𝟓≤
? 𝟔.𝟗 𝟗. 𝟏≤ √?𝟖𝟕≤ 𝟗. 𝟓

c Estimate correct to 1 d.p. d Estimate correct to 1 d.p.

𝟒 . 𝟒 ≤ √?𝟐𝟏≤ 𝟒 . 𝟖 𝟏𝟎. 𝟏≤ √𝟏𝟎𝟓

? ≤𝟏𝟎 .𝟒
Deeper Thinking: Estimating a Cube Root
Estimate to 1 d.p.

We can use double number lines to help us.

To start with, let’s think about which two integers
the cube root is in between. Start by thinking about
the cube integers either side of .

27 46 64

3 4
We can see that is between
and , but it is closer to
√ 𝟒𝟔 ≈ 𝟑 . 𝟓
3

Why is finding a cube root more difficult than finding a

square root, even if we use a diagram?
The difference between two cube numbers is much wider than the
difference between square numbers,
? so it is a lot harder to estimate
where the cube root falls.
Deeper Thinking: Estimating a Cube Root
Estimate to 1 d.p.
We can see that the And the difference
difference between between & is
& is Therefore, is almost
halfway, but slightly
19 closer to than 18

27 46 64

3 4

19 √ 𝟒𝟔
3
18
37 37
This means that is away from

From this, we can say that

19 19 (to 1 d.p.)
≈ ≈ 0.5
37 38
Quickfire Questions
𝟐 . 𝟏≤ √ 𝟏𝟎
3
a Estimate correct to 1.d.p. ? ≤𝟐.𝟑
8 10 27

Number Line ?
2
√ 𝟏𝟎
3 3

𝟐 . 𝟖≤ √𝟐𝟓
3
b Estimate correct to 1.d.p. ? ≤𝟐.𝟗
17 2

8 25 27

Number Line8.6
?
2 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.7 8.8 √8.9
3
𝟐𝟓 3

17 2
19 19

𝟒 . 𝟓 ≤ √𝟏𝟎𝟎
3
c Estimate correct to 1.d.p. ? ≤ 𝟒 .𝟕
Exercise (available as a separate worksheet)
Show all
solutions

1 Fill in the gaps on the number lines and use them to help estimate
the following roots to 1 decimal place.
a √ 12 ≈ 𝟑 ?.𝟒
?
9 12 ?
16

?3 √ 𝟏𝟐 ?4
b √ 51 ≈ 𝟕.?𝟏
?
49 51 ?
64

?7 √ 𝟓𝟏 ?8
c √ 95 ≈ 𝟗 .?𝟕 𝟏𝟒
? 𝟓
?
81 95 100
? ?
?
9 √ 𝟗𝟓 ?
10
𝟏𝟒 𝟓
?
𝟏𝟗 ?
𝟏𝟗
Exercise (available as a separate worksheet)
Show all
solutions

2 State between which two integers the following roots can be found.

a √ 70 and? b √ 190 ?
and c √7 ?
and

d √ 300 √ 42 √ 130
3 3
?
and e ?
and f ?
and

3 Calculate the following. Use your answers from question 1 to help

where possible. Give your answers to 1 decimal place.

a √ 70≈ 𝟖?. 𝟒 b √ 190≈ 𝟏𝟑? . 𝟖 c √ 7≈ 𝟐?. 𝟔

d √ 30≈ 𝟓?. 𝟓 e √ 140≈ 𝟏𝟏? . 𝟖 f √ 300≈ 𝟏𝟕? . 𝟑
g √ 42≈ 𝟑?. 𝟓
3
h √ 130≈ 𝟓?. 𝟏
3
i √ 950≈ 𝟗 ?. 𝟖
3
Exercise (available as a separate worksheet)
Show all
solutions

4 Write down a number that you can square to give an answer in between
200 and 300.
, or
, which is?too small
, which is too big.

5 What is the difference between the fifth and sixth cube numbers?

The fifth cube number is

The sixth cube number is ? 𝟐𝟏𝟔− 𝟏𝟐𝟓=𝟗𝟏

6 Fill in the blanks in the questions below using the phrases greater
than or less than.

a less ?than
is _________________________
b ? than
greater
is _________________________

c ? than
greater
is _________________________
Exercise (available as a separate worksheet)
Show all
solutions

7 Which integer is between and 8 Nathan claims that 37 does not

? have a square root.
Nathan is incorrect.
Explain why.

? Nathan
The integer between and is
does not have an integer
square root, but it still has a
square root ().

? like , where
We call expressions
the answer is non-integer, surds.
You’ll cover these in a future
lesson.
Exercise (available as a separate worksheet)
Show all
solutions

N The square root of is between & .

What could be?

As and , x could lie

anywhere between these two
numbers.
?
𝟖< √ 𝒙 <𝟗
∴ 𝟔𝟒< 𝒙 <𝟖𝟏