Patfoot Patty picked a pat of powered patterns.
               A pat of powered patterns Patfoot Patty picked.
               If Patfoot Patty picked a pat of powered patterns,
               Where's the pat of powered patterns Patfoot Patty picked?

THE PAT IS IN THE PATTERN-POWER OF MATH! Because math is about patterns. And patterns of patterns. And patterns of patterns of patterns. Etc.

PATTERN is "the figure" against "the ground" of reality which math studies and manipulates.

The great Pythagoras of Samos (c. 580-496 BC-y) singled out the "gnomon" (or building-block) of perhaps the simplest of MATH-PATTERNS -- the NUMBER-PATTERNS. Pythagoras-L taught us to build geometric patterns of numbers.

We speak of "squares" and "cubes" because of Pythagoras-L. He also spoke of "triangular numbers", "pentagonal numbers", etc. (These ideas inspired modern crystallography and solid state physics, explaining the beauty of the diamond and endowing us with the transistor and synthetic insulin.)

Elsewhere, on this website, I describe a mathtivity -- "Bottle-top (Pythagorean) Geometry" -- which teaches Pythagorean Geometry to elementary school children. (The usual geometry is analogic (continuous) whereas as Pythagorean geometry is digital or discrete or discontinuous.)

Pythagoras-L taught us that the odd number is the gnomon of the square-pattern. The first odd number is 1, and 1 x 1 = 1, which is the first square. 3 is the next odd number, and 1 + 3 = 4 = 2 x 2, the second square. 5 is the next odd number, and 1 + 3 + 5 = 9 = 3 x 3, the third square. 1 + 3 + 5 + 7 = 16 = 4 x 4, the fourth square. 1+ 3 + 5 + 7 + 9 = 25 = 5 x 5, the fifth square. Etc.

This also means that you can find square roots by subtracting odd numbers. Consider 25 = 5 x 5. 25 - 1 = 24; 24 - 3 = 21; 21 - 5 = 16; 16 - 7 = 9; 9 - 9 = 0. I subtracted five numbers from 25 to reach zero, hence, its square root is 5. To consider another number, 1225 = 35 x 35. Subtraction of 35 successive odd numbers from 1225 yields zero. But there is a trick which reduces 35 subtractions to 3 + 5 = 8 subtractions.

The best advice I can give you, for education and for living, is to SEARCH FOR PATTERNS IN MATHEMATICS AND SEE HOW TO APPLY THEM TO NON-MATHEMATICAL EDUCATION AND TO LIFE!