A square root is doing the opposite of squaring. Squaring is multiplying a number by itself. Square rooting is trying to figure out what number squares into the number you have currently. For your Example 1, the square root of 9 is 3. 3 x 3 = 9. Some better examples are: 4 x 4 = 16. 4 is the square root of 16, and 16 is the square of 4.