If you're seeing this message, it means we're having trouble loading external resources on our website.

If you're behind a web filter, please make sure that the domains *.kastatic.org and *.kasandbox.org are unblocked.

# Squaring numbers

## Example

Here's how we square the number 3:
3, squared, equals, 3, times, 3, equals, 9

### Reflection question

What does it mean to square a number?

## Practice

1, squared, equals

2, squared, equals

3, squared, equals

4, times, 4, equals

5, squared, equals

6, squared, equals

7, squared, equals

8, times, 8, equals

9, squared, equals

10, squared, equals

## Challenge problem

a, squared, equals

## Want to join the conversation?

• Why is it that when you do exponents of zero it is always 0
• But do not be confused with anything to the power of 0 because that is 1
• khan academy is a great site! ive learned a lot
• In one of the tutorials the answer stated -1 to the 0 power is +1. I don't understand why. If you have a -1 and you times it by itself 0 times, wouldn't that leave you with -1?
• So this is a trick of conventional logic vs mathematical rules. Don't confuse the absolute value of the event with whether or not the event happened. I'll explain.

-1 times itself 0 times means that -1 was in fact multiplied by itself, the event happened, but to an exponent with an absolute value of 0. Therefore the absolute value of -1 is not affected, it remains 1, but the event still happened, so the signs also have to be multiplied, and a -x- is a +, hence the absolute value remains unchanged but the sign changes.

I hope this makes sense, it is a difficult concept to explain.
• can you explian more plz
• what is an easy way to train your brain on multiplying the number that many times
(1 vote)
• A lot of it is memorization, but there are also tricks. For example, 9 squared may not seem easy, but it is because 9 times 9 is not obvious, but 10 times 9 is and 9 times 9 is just one less. So you don't explicitly do 9 times 9, you do: (10x9)-9. Doesn't work for everything, but often there are tricks like that. Other example, 5 squared is half of 5x10, so it's just half of 50, and that's easier than actually multiplying 5 5 times in your head.

Hope this helps.