Decimals and Standard Form

1 of 12 © Boardworks Ltd 2018

Powers of ten
The decimal number system is based on powers of ten.

Powers of ten 10 = 101

are written 100 = 10 × 10 = 102
using index 1000 = 10 × 10 × 10 = 103
notation. 10 000 = 10 × 10 × 10 × 10 = 104

1 1 –1
Any number raised to 0.1 = 10 = 10 1 =10
the power of 0 is 1, so 1 1
0.01 = 100 = 102 = 10–2
100 = 1. Decimals can 1 1
be written using 0.001 = 1000 = 103 = 10–3
negative powers of ten. 1 1
0.0001 = 10000 = 104 = 10–4

2 of 12 © Boardworks Ltd 2018

Standard form
2 × 1015 and 1.5 × 10–12 are examples of numbers written
in standard form.

Numbers written in standard form have two parts:

number
power
between × of 10
1 and 10

This way of writing a number is also called scientific notation.

Any number can be written using standard form, however it

is usually used to write very large or very small numbers.

3 of 12 © Boardworks Ltd 2018

Standard form – writing large numbers

For example, the mass of the planet earth is about

5 970 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 kg.

We can write this in

standard form as a
number between 1 and 10
multiplied by a power of 10.

5.97 × 1024 kg

number between
power of ten
1 and 10

4 of 12 © Boardworks Ltd 2018

Standard form – writing small numbers

We can write very small numbers

using negative powers of ten.

For example, the width of this

shelled amoeba is 0.00013 m.

This is written in
standard form as:
1.3 × 10–4 m.

number between
power of ten
1 and 10
5 of 12 © Boardworks Ltd 2018
Standard form matching

6 of 12 © Boardworks Ltd 2018

Which number is incorrect?

7 of 12 © Boardworks Ltd 2018

Ordering planet sizes

8 of 12 © Boardworks Ltd 2018

Ordering elements

9 of 12 © Boardworks Ltd 2018

Calculations involving standard form

10 of 12 © Boardworks Ltd 2018

Standard form calculations

11 of 12 © Boardworks Ltd 2018

Get the full package

This is only a sample of one of thousands of

Boardworks Science presentations which can
help you teach the new specifications.
To find out how you can upgrade and get
these resources for your department email:
science@boardworks.co.uk

12 of 12 © Boardworks Ltd 2018