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5th grade
Course: 5th grade > Unit 10
Lesson 5: Comparing decimal place valuesPowers of ten: FAQ
Frequently asked questions about powers of ten.
What is a power of ten?
A power of ten is when you multiply ten by itself a certain number of times. For example, 10, squared means to multiply ten by itself twice, resulting in 100.
Try it yourself with this exercise:
What does it mean to multiply and divide by 10, 100, or 1, comma, 000?
When you multiply a number by 10, 100, or 1, comma, 000, you're making it ten, one hundred, or one thousand times larger.
When you divide a number by 10, 100, or 1, comma, 000, you're making it ten, one hundred, or one thousand times smaller.
Try it yourself with this exercise:
How do I multiply and divide a decimal by 10, 100 or 1, comma, 000?
When you multiply a decimal by 10, 100 or 1, comma, 000, you're effectively shifting the decimal point to the right.
- When you multiply by 10, the decimal point moves one place to the right. For example, 2, point, 3, times, 10, equals, 23.
- When you multiply by 100, the decimal point moves two places to the right. For example, 2, point, 3, times, 100, equals, 230.
- When you multiply by 1000, the decimal point moves three places to the right. For example, 2, point, 3, times, 1, comma, 000, equals, 2, comma, 300.
When you divide a decimal by 10, 100 or 1, comma, 000, you're effectively shifting the decimal point to the left.
- When you divide by 10, the decimal point moves one place to the left. For example, 23, divided by, 10, equals, 2, point, 3.
- When you divide by 100, the decimal point moves two places to the left. For example, 230, divided by, 100, equals, 2, point, 3.
- When you divide by 1, comma, 000, the decimal point moves three places to the left. For example, 2, comma, 300, divided by, 1, comma, 000, equals, 2, point, 3.
Try it yourself with these exercises:
How do I multiply by a power of ten?
To multiply by a power of ten, you follow the same rules as before. For example, to multiply by 10, squared, you multiply by 100, and to multiply by 10, cubed, you multiply by 1, comma, 000.
Try it yourself with this exercise:
Why do I need to know how to multiply and divide by powers of ten?
Multiplying and dividing by powers of ten is a useful skill in a lot of different situations. For example, you might use it when converting between metric units or when calculating percentages.
Want to join the conversation?
- I like math upvote me I upvote you(12 votes)
- I upvoted you tyler now upvote me please!。◕‿◕。(11 votes)
- upvote me plz it's for a challenge trying to get 50 votes!(•‿•)(11 votes)
- what if the power of ten is like ten to the power of 30 how would you find that?(10 votes)
- Think of the power as how many times you put zero after 1.(1 vote)
- Never gonna give you up never gonna let you down never gonna run around and desert you 🧑🏻🦰🧑🏻🦰🧑🏻🦰(5 votes)
- never gonna say a lie never gonna say goodbye(3 votes)
- I got so confused at first but now I know how to do it(5 votes)
- I finished it, and I wonder what would happen if there was a 10 to the power of anything beyond 5(2 votes)
- all you would do is put a one 1 and if it had the power of 30 you put 30 zeros behind it(2 votes)
- What is the power of 10?(0 votes)
- It depends on how much your multiplying 10 by. I'll give you a list of all the powers of 10 from 1 - 10.
10 to the power of 1 is 10
10 to the power of 2 is 100
10 to the power of 3 is 1,000
10 to the power of 4 is 10,000
10 to the power of 5 is 100,000
10 to the power of 6 is 1,000,000
10 to the power of 7 is 10,000,000
10 to the power of 8 is 100,000,000
10 to the power of 9 is 1,000,000,000
10 to the power of 10 is 10,000,000,000
The trick is just to add however much zeros your multiplying with.(17 votes)
- never gonna turn round an hurt you(2 votes)
- not even the right lyrics(1 vote)