1.

2 Standard form

COMPARING NUMBERS IN SCIENTIFIC NOTATION

The power of 10 in scientific notation tells you the size of the number.

TASK 1 How much bigger?

6 × 105 and 6 × 103 differ by a factor of 102.

102 = 100, so 6 × 105 is 100 times bigger than 6 × 103.

For each of the following pair of numbers, circle the larger number and determine how many times
bigger it is than the smaller number.

1 8 × 104 and 8 × 107 2 7 × 106 and 7 × 100

3 2 × 10−4 and 2 × 10−3 4 9 × 10−5 and 9 × 102

TASK 2 Order these numbers

Use the power of ten to compare the size of these numbers. Cut them out and arrange them in ascending
order (from smallest to largest).

9 × 103 1 × 10−4 9 × 10−4

8 × 10−1 6 × 101 7 × 105
−3 −8 4 × 103
2 × 10 5 × 10
3 × 10−6 7 × 106 6 × 102
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