<s>[INST] Is there any simple method to calculate $\sqrt x$ without using logarithm Suppose that we don't know logarithm, then how we would able to calculate $\sqrt x$, where $x$ is a real number? More generally, is there any algorithm to calculate $\sqrt [ n ]{ x } $ without using logarithm? More simple techniques would be nice.
Here is a simple technique used to approximate square roots by Persian author Hassan be al-Hossein:
For example: $\sqrt {78}\approx 8\frac { 14 }{ 17 } $ , where $8$ is the nearest integer root of $78$, $14 = 78 - 8^2$, $17 = 2 \times 8 + 1$.
if $n=2^k$ we can use the method above. 
For example, for $k=2$ Lets calculate $\sqrt [ 4 ]{ 136 } $: $$\sqrt [ 4 ]{ 136 } =\sqrt { \sqrt { 136 }  } \approx \sqrt { 11\frac { 136-{ 11 }^{ 2 } }{ 11\times 2+1 }  } =\sqrt { 11\frac { 15 }{ 23 }  } \\ \sqrt { 11\frac { 15 }{ 23 }  } \approx 3\frac { 11\frac { 15 }{ 23 } -{ 3 }^{ 2 } }{ 3\times 2+1 } =\frac { 544 }{ 161 } =3.38\\$$ The exact result is$$ \sqrt [ 4 ]{ 136 } =3.4149\cdots$$ The method approximates well, but it is working for only $n=2^k$ as I know. 
 [/INST] $$\sqrt[3]{x}=1+\frac{x-1}{3}-\frac{2(x-1)^2}{9(2!)}+\sum_{n=1}^\infty (-1)^{n-1} \frac{(2+3n)(2+3(n-1))(x-1) ^n)}{3n(n!)}$$
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