Find the Square Root: Solving √256 Step by Step

To solve the problem of finding $\sqrt{256}$, we will determine a number that, when squared, results in 256.

The operation we are performing is finding the square root, which is defined as follows: if $x^2 = n$, then $x$ is the square root of $n$.

First, consider the list of perfect squares: 1 (because $1^2 = 1$), 4 (because $2^2 = 4$), 9 (because $3^2 = 9$), 16 (because $4^2 = 16$), all the way up to 256 which needs to be checked.

Let's test the number 16:
$16^2 = 16 \times 16 = 256$

This confirms that 16 is the square root of 256.

Therefore, the solution to the problem is $\sqrt{256} = 16$.