Eli5: how do machines calculate the value of root of numbers that aren’t perfect squares.

Question

Eli5: how do machines calculate the value of root of numbers that aren’t perfect squares.

In: 70

Answer 1

One method electronic computers have used to speed up calculations of roots and powers is using logarithmic lookup tables and logarithmic arithmetic to calculate powers.

If you want to calculate sqrt(x), you can do this.

sqrt(x) = x^(1/2) = e^(1/2 * ln(x))