A 16-sided regular polygon (like a perfectly square checker board) has 16² = ___ unit squares. If the same number of unit squares were arranged to form a SQUARE pattern of equal-sized smaller squares, the side of that new square would consist of how many unit squares?

The total number of unit squares is 16² = 256. To arrange 256 unit squares back into a square pattern, the side of that pattern is √256 = 16 (since 16² = 256). So this question is essentially asking √(16²) = 16. The point: squaring and square-rooting are inverse operations.