Powers of Ten to Estimate Quantities

A power of ten is a number expressed as ten raised to an exponent, indicating how many times to multiply ten by itself. For example, $$10^3 = 10 \times 10 \times 10 = 1000$$ .

$$9 \times 10^{-5}$$ .

$$100,000,000$$ .

0.007.

$$5 \times 10^6$$ .

$$8 \times 10^{-8}$$ .

It represents a very small number, specifically one divided by ten raised to the power of n.

Move the decimal point to the right of the first non-zero digit and express the number as a product of that digit and a power of ten.

$$5 \times 10^{-4}$$ .

$$2.5 \times 10^5$$ .