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How to Square Two-Digit Numbers in Your Head

Learn how to quickly and easily calculate the square of any two-digit number entirely in your
head. Then try your hand at a few practice problems to test out your new mental math skills.

By Jason Marshall, PhD, The Math Dude April 4, 2015

Episode #109

A few days ago, a friend of mine asked if I had ever seen the trick for calculating squares of two-digit
numbers in my head. Ive seen lots of mental math tricks in my time, but it turns that for some reason
this is one that Id never run across before. After my friend showed me how it worksand after seeing
just how quick, easy, and downright cool it isI was convinced that this is a trick that math fans of the
world should see. Which is exactly why I'm going to show it to you today.

Review: What are Perfect Squares?

Weve talked about squaring numbers and perfect squares many times before, so everybody whos
been following along for a while should be up to speed. But just in case youre a little fuzzy, the quick
and dirty summary is that squaring a number is simply the process of multiplying that number by itself.
And the result of doing that is a number thats called a perfect square. So the square of 5 is just 5 x 5
and thats equal to the perfect square 25.

Is There a Way to Square 2-Digit Numbers Quickly?

While its easy to calculate the squares of single-digit numbers like 5 in your head (since those squares
are part of the basic multiplication table we learned about many moons ago), its not so easy to multiply
two-digit numbers in your head. Oractuallyis it? What do you think: If I was to ask you to quickly nd
the square of a number like 32, could you do it? In truth, probably notbut thats just because you dont
know the trick that my friend showed me. So its time to let you in on this mental math secret.

How to Square 2-Digit Numbers Ending with 5

Lets start by talking about the special case of squaring a two-digit number that ends with 5. For
example, whats the square of 35? Well, it turns out that the result of squaring any 2-digit number that
ends with 5 starts with the number you get by multiplying the rst digit of the number youre squaring
with the next highest digit and ends with the number 25. Which means that the answer to 35 x 35 must
begin with the number 3 x 4 = 12 (since 3 is the rst digit in 35 and 4 is the next number higher than 3)
and ends with the number 25. So, as you can check for yourself by hand (just to make sure it works!),
the answer to 35 x 35 is 1,225.
How about the square of 75? Well, the answer must begin with 7 x 8 = 56 and end with 25. So its 5,625,
right? As you can check by hand or with a calculator, it is! And as you can check with the rest of the
two-digit numbers ending with 5, this trick always worksmentally squaring two-digit numbers that end
with 5 is a cinch. But what if the number doesnt end with 5?

Mentally squaring two-digit numbers that end with 5 is a cinch.

How to Square Any 2-Digit Number in Your Head

Squaring any two-digit number in your head, lets say 32 x 32, is a bit more dicult. We dont have time
to go into all the details about why this works right now, but the rst step is to gure out the distance
(more accurately the absolute value) from the number youre squaring to the nearest multiple of ten. In
our example, the nearest multiple of 10 to 32 is 30, and the distance between 32 and 30 is 2. If you were
instead squaring 77, the nearest multiple of 10 is 80, and the distance between 80 and 77 is 3. Now that
weve gured out this distance, all that we have to do to nd the answer to the problem is multiply the
number we get when we subtract this distance from the original number by the number we get when
we add this distance to the original number, and then add the square of the distance to the result.

I know that sounds like a mouthful, but its really not so bad. In our example, the method says that 32 x
32 must be equal to 30 (thats the original number minus the distance of 2) times 34 (thats the original
number plus the distance of 2) plus 4 (thats the square of the distance of 2). In other words, 32 x 32 = (30
x 34) + 4. Wait, that actually looks morecomplicated! How exactly is it better? Because as long as you
use the fact that 30 = 3 x 10 to make the multiplication problem easy (as in 30 x 34 = 3 x 10 x 34 = 3 x 340
= 1,020), this is now an easy problem to solve! Practice at it a bit, and youll see that the beauty of this
method is that it turns a single problem thats hard to solve in your head into multiple easy problems.

Practice Problems
To make sure you understand how this all works, lets do a couple of practice problems. Ill start by
showing you one more worked example, and then Ill leave you to try the rest for yourself.

1. 77 x 77 = 5,929 The distance from 80 to 77 is 3, so 77 x 77 = (74 x 80) + 9 = (8 x 10 x 74) + 9 = (8 x 740) + 9

=5,920 + 9 = 5,929

2. 21 x 21 = _____

3. 54 x 54 = _____

4. 98 x 98 = _____

Wrap Up
Okay, thats all the math we have time for today. Remember to become a fan of the Math Dude on
Facebook where youll nd a new featured number or math puzzle posted every weekday. And if youre
on Twitter, please follow me there too. Finally, if you have math questions, feel free to send them my
way via Facebook, Twitter, or by email at mathdude@quickanddirtytips.com.

Until next time, this is Jason Marshall with The Math Dudes Quick and Dirty Tips to Make Math Easier.
Thanks for reading, math fans!

12Comments Sortby Newest

Addacomment...

AmelieLianaDavis(Califrnia)
thereisanothereasywayfindsquarequick&Easy
http://mathsvmind.blogspot.in/.../squarequickeasy...
LikeReplyMar3,20176:34am

SonuSharmaSalesExecutiveatMegabyteSolutionsprivatelimited
GOODTRICK
LikeReplyJan24,20177:10am

AashayMadke
Greattricks
LikeReplyJan9,201710:04pm

RamanSinghPunjabiUniversity,Patiala,Punjab,India
272squareshortcut
LikeReplyJan2,20174:16am

MatthewCollinsonOxted
A2digitnumberwithdigitsaandbarerepresentedas10a+b.Squaringthemgives
(10a+b)(10a+b).
Thenearestmultipleof10isobviously10a.Thedistancewillbeb.

Soyouaremultiplyingthenearestmultipleof10from10a+b(whichwilleitherbe10a,
i.e.10a+bb,ifb<5,or,ifb>=5,thenthenearestmultipleof10willbethenext
multipleof10,whichwouldsimplybe10(a+1).Itcanalsobeexpressedas10a+b+(10
b)i.e.37=30+7,andthenearestmultipleof10is30+7+107=30+7+3=30+10=40.
Thissimplybecause10a+b+10bissimply10a+10,whichfactorsto10(a+1).
The10a,... SeeMore
LikeReply 1Sep17,201611:59pm

LeeRobertsProprietrioatRobertsRenovation&Repair
What'seasierformetosquareanytwodigitnumber:

Example:64*64=

60*60=3600+
60*4*2=480+
4*4=16=
4096

CouldbethatsinceI'vebeendoingthisforsolongthatIfinditsimple.Ittakesme1or2
secondstosquareanytwodigitnumber.
LikeReply 5Jan8,20166:39am

RodtakerRodtaker
5064beetween??14square196..1carry..96..nafter.25+14+1=40ncarry
afterletters4096
LikeReply 3Jan30,20166:00am

FelixWongTheHongKongPolytechnicUniversity
Thanks
 Thanks
LikeReplyFeb10,201610:55am

ChristianHenryChanStarlandInternationalSchoolInc.
greattrick...thanks
LikeReplyJun25,20164:37am

Show2morerepliesinthisthread

HemanthMammuWorksatEstudante
54*54=50(58)+16=29016=290+16=2916
LikeReply 1Nov10,201511:18am

VickyWattSydney
Iveseenalotofcoolmathstricksinmytime,butthisoneblowsthemalloutofthe
water.Formostofus,squaringanumberabove16mayprovedifficultandtediousbut
notwiththisshortcut.HereIwillshowyouhowtosquareanynumberbetween37and
63.

Example1:

43x43.

Step1)Findthedistancebetween43and25.
Step2)That18becomesyourfirsttwodigits.
Step3)Findthedistancebetween43and50.Squarethatnumber.
Step4)That49becomesyourlasttwodigits.... SeeMore
LikeReply 12Jul22,20156:15am

ShariqueKhanB.Com,andmathematicshunorsatStudying
Verynicemethodimverywithu
LikeReplyJan28,20162:18am

RameshParekh
VickyWatt,excellentmethod,but,whennumbercrosses70,unlessuremember
squaresof1to50
LikeReplyJul24,20169:49am

PrizziColotta
Verygoodbutwheredoesthe169comefrom?
LikeReplyOct20,201612:08pmEdited

Show1morereplyinthisthread

NikhilSharmaWorksatFacebook
thesquareof54*54isnotvalidforthismethod.
LikeReply 1Jun7,201510:01am

RobinDhimanCHITKARAUNIVERSITY
Itisworkingcorrectly,gothroughyourcalculationsonceagain.
(50*58)+16=(580*5)+16=2900+16=2916.
LikeReply 1Jun19,20158:44am

TauseefurRahmanRaazAssociateSystemEngineeratIBMIndiaPvtLtd,
Pune
Itisvalid
 LikeReplyNov4,201612:24pm

DhruvJain7thatFazlaniL'academieGlobale
Ialreadyknowsquaresfrom1to50.
LikeReplyApr15,20149:37am

TanjirAhmed
tellhow!
LikeReply 1Nov11,20154:03am

AmelieDerosneStudyingatEstudante
Trythisis
http://mathsvmind.blogspot.in/.../squarequickeasy...
LikeReplyMar3,20176:37am

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