Small numbers - powers of 10
By small we mean numbers between 0 and 1, i.e. numbers starting with
'zero point' something.
We can extend the table of powers of 10 into small numbers which are
fractions of 1.
| 10-4 |
10-3 |
10-2 |
10-1 |
100 |
101 |
102 |
103 |
104 |
105 |
106 |
| |
|
|
|
1 |
10 |
100 |
1,000 |
10,000 |
100,000 |
1,000,000 |
As you go from right to left along the bottom line of the table
you see that you are dividing by 10.
As you go from right to left along the bottom line of the table
you see that the powers of 10 are decreasing by 1 each time.
You eventually reach 100 = 1 and then negative powers:
10-1 = 0.1, 10-2 = 0.01, 10-3 =
0.001 and so on.
Notice that the power is the same as the number of zeros at the
start of the number with the decimal point after the first zero.
The negative power does NOT mean that the number is negative. It
means that the number is SMALL, and the more negative the power,
the smaller the number.
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