Square roots is a concept that almost all of us are familiar with!

 

Even if you are not from a coding background, you might have solved a number of square root problems using the mathematical functions.

 

In this blog, we are going to achieve something similar but we will be using the Python logic and functions to figure out the square root of any given number.

 

For finding the square root of a number, Python offers 5 different functions out of which math.sqrt() is the most popular. 

 

From positive to complex numbers, you can find the Python square root of all sorts of any given problem.

 

Learn all about the different ways to find square roots in Python in the blog.

What is a square root?

A square root can be defined as a number value that, when multiplied by itself, returns the original number as the value. 

 

This is basically an inverted method for finding the square of a number. When finding a square root, you would have to multiply any specific number with itself.

 

Now, the result obtained will be represented using the symbol for square root. For instance, if y is the square root of x, then the expression can be written as:

 

y = √x

 

Also, you can write the same expression as y2 = x

 

The symbol √ is used for representing the root of the numbers. Note that when a positive number is multiplied by itself, it simply gives us the square of the said number.

 

For instance, the square of 2 is 4, 2×2 = 4 while the square root of 4 can be written as √4 = 2

 

Now, you might have developed a general idea of how the square root works and how you can find the square root of any given number using simple equations.

 

With that said, in this blog we are here to figure out how to find the python square root and learn more about finding square roots in python.

How do you find a square root in Python?

The Python programming language offers a specific class function to figure out the square root of any given number; this makes finding  the square root a lot easier.

 

One of the easiest class functions is math.sqrt(x) that will return the value of the square root of any specific number. 

 

However there are two conditions that needs to be fulfilled for the function to work in Python:

• The number must be greater than 0 

 

• Or, the number must be equal to 0

Once the math.sqrt(x) is implemented in a program, the function will return a float value in order to represent the square root of the number.

 

The Python programming language offers 5 different ways in order to figure out the python square root. Let's have a look at the different methods to figure out the square root in the next section.

 

What are  ways to find square roots in Python? 

One thing to keep in mind while finding the square roots is that it is much easier to find the square root of positive numbers as compared to the negative numbers.

 

Now, we also have to consider the negative numbers. Mathematically it is impossible to calculate the square root of a negative number by only using the real numbers. 

 

This is because when two negative numbers are multiplied, they will always return a positive number.

 

However, you can still find the square root of a negative number by using the multiples of -1

With that said, we can list 5 different functions that can be used for finding the square root of any number in Python. 

 

Check them out as follows:

• Using the sqrt() function

The sqrt() is one of the most common class functions used for calculating square roots in Python. This function is based on the math.pow() class.

 

You can find this function with the original Python module hence you are not required to install separate libraries to use this function in Python.

 

In order to find the python square root using this function, all you have to do is insert this function at each step of the problem, and the program will automatically return the result.

• Using the pow() function

When we find the square of a number, we essentially raise it to power of 2. On the other hand, when we find the square root of a number, we raise it to power of 0.5 

 

This is basically how the math.pow() function is implemented in Python. In order to complete this function, you are not required to reduce the function in Python; as here the exponent and the number will be considered separately.

• Using the (**) operator for finding the square roots

For this function as well, the Python program used a similar logic as the math.pow() function. Here, you will have to raise the number to power of 0.5 along with Python's exponent operator.

 

The function looks something like math.pow(x, 0.5), but while using the (**) operator, the syntax becomes shorter and there is no dependency on the libraries.

• Using Numpy to figure out the root of an array or a number

Numpy is basically a numerical computation available in the go-to Python library. This function comes with the sqrt() class that can be used to figure out the square root of either numbers or even arrays

 

Here the return type for a number will be represented as - numpy.float64

 

While the array will be represented as Numpy.ndarray

• Using C math for the complex numbers

cmath is the only function that works the best for the negative numbers. It also works efficiently with complex numbers.

 

Unlike all the other functions that we have discussed so far, the cmath is arguably one of the most resourceful functions

Wrapping Up

Some of the functions mentioned in the blog do not require reducing functions in Python. You can use these class functions after downloading them from the go-to library of Python.

 

If you are dealing with negative numbers, we would suggest using the cmath function as it works the best for any sort of complex numbers.