Adults taking part in the poll were also asked a mathematical question: what is the square root of 64?

BBC: NEWS | UK | Education | 'Many struggle' with arithmetic

The standard deviation formula goes like this: 1.1 x the amount bet x the square root of the number of hands played.

FORBES: High Frequency Trading And Blackjack

An imaginary one is a multiple of the square root of -1.

ECONOMIST: Beno?t Mandelbrot

Scaling back the speed by a factor of 28 leaves you where you were, dragwise, because the square root of 800 is somewhere around 28.

FORBES: Cruising Altitude: Minus 400 Feet

So the obvious way to find out whether a number is prime is to try dividing it by all numbers which are smaller than its square root.

ECONOMIST: Number theory

Our square root formula says that, if Romney were as popular in New York as the incumbent, the odds of a dead-even result are 3, 300 to 1 against.

FORBES: What Are the Odds That Your Vote Will Count?

What is the square root of infinity?

FORBES: What Are The Most Basic Mathematical Proofs Or Facts That The Majority Of People Would Benefit From?

For example, if your BMI is 36 - which is probably what John Prescott's is - you take the square root of that, which would be six, and divide it by 100, giving you a figure of 6%.

BBC: Head-to-head: Fat tax

But having failed to get anywhere with its proposal for voting weights based on the square root of a country's population, Poland is now talking about ways of making it more difficult for large countries to block a qualified majority vote.

BBC: NEWS | Europe | Poles in war of words over voting

Unavoidable damage, say Kurdish officials on the ground, who say they had to root out this terrorist stronghold throughout the 250-square mile area, well dug-in, well-entrenched.

CNN: Brent Sadler: U.S. says camp has bioweapons clues