In mathematics, a square number or perfect square is an integer that is the square of an integer; in other words, it is the product of some integer with itself. For example, 9 is a square number, since it can be written as 3 × 3. The usual notation for the square of a number n is not the product n × n, but the equivalent exponentiation n2, usually pronounced as "n squared". The name square number comes from the name of the shape; see . Square numbers are non-negative. Another way of saying that a (non-negative) integer is a square number, is that its square root is again an integer. For example, √9 = 3, so 9 is a square number. A positive integer that has no perfect square divisors except 1 is called square-free. For a non-negative integer n, the nth square number is n2, with 02 = 0 being the zeroth one. The concept of square can be extended to some other number systems. If rational numbers are included, then a square is the ratio of two square integers, and, conversely, the ratio of two square integers is a square, e.g., . Starting with 1, there are ⌊√m⌋ square numbers up to and including m, where the expression ⌊x⌋ represents the floor of the number x.

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