describe order of magnitude
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describe order of magnitude
An order of magnitude is an approximation of the logarithm of a value relative to some contextually understood reference value, usually ten, interpreted as the base of the logarithm and the representative of values of magnitude one.
One order of magnitude is 10 to the first power. Two orders of magnitude is 10 to the second power. And so on. The difference in the powers of ten (the difference between the exponents of 10) between the two quantities is 3.
When we think of the word 'magnitude,' we think of something very large. So we can assume that order of magnitude has something to do with large numbers, right? Long ago, scientists and mathematicians were working with very large numbers for certain values, like the speed of light or the distance from Earth to the sun, and they decided that they needed a simpler way to write and refer to these large numbers. That's when they came up with scientific notation. It's important to know about scientific notation when we speak about order of magnitude, so here are a few examples in this chart to get you quickly acquainted