Question

give the order of magnitude of 988​

Answer 1

Orders of Magnitude are approximately common logarithms of ratios of numbers, typically rounded to the nearest integer below.

If your number already represents a ratio, then take its common log.

Explanation:

If one number is

10

times another, then we can say that it is an order of magnitude larger.

Orders of magnitude represent a comparison of scale, for example,

1

kg

is three orders of magnitude larger than

1

g

The "order of magnitude of

500

" is meaningless except in comparison to another number. The order of magnitude of the ratio

500

:

1

is meaningful, typically by saying that one thing is

2

orders of magnitude larger than another thing.

Note that orders of magnitude try not to exaggerate the scale, choosing to express that

500

1

>

10

2

rather than the fact that

log

(

500

)

≈

2.69897

so

500

1

≈

10

2.69897

If we are faced with a ratio like

900

:

1

, then we would probably say that something was "roughly three orders of magnitude larger than" another thing.