Question

What is the order of magnitude of 800?

Answer 1

The Orders of Magnitude is better thought of as what power of 10 is a number raised to using scientific notation. Order of magnitude is written using powers of 10.

Order of magnitude can be derived from scientific notation where we have `a * 10^n` where n is the order of magnitude.

The easiest way to work forwards is start with `n = 1`, and work up powers until `10^n` is greater than or equal to your original number.

In this case, 800 can be written as `8 * 100` which, in scientific notation is `8 * 10^2` where the order of magnitude is 2.

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