What is the order of magnitude of a football field?

1 Answer
George C.
Dec 23, 2015

Orders of magnitude are used for comparison of measures, not for a single measure...

Explanation:

One order of magnitude is roughly one power of #10# in ratio.

For example, the length of a football field is the same order of magnitude as its width, since the ratio of the sizes is less than #10#.

The diameter of a standard (soccer) football is about #9# inches and the length of a standard football pitch is #100# yards, i.e. #3600# inches. So a soccer pitch is #3600/9 = 400# times the diameter of the ball. We could say that the length of the pitch is #2# orders of magnitude larger than the diameter of the ball, being greater than #10^2# times the size.

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