What is the order of magnitude of 500,000?

1 Answer
Dec 30, 2015

5

Explanation:

The order of magnitude is the power of 10, when a number is written in its standard form.

#500,000# in its standard form is:

#5.0×10^5#

Hence, the order of magnitude is 5!


Just to clarify, the standard form of any number is that number written as a single digit followed by a decimal point and decimal places, which is multiplied with a power of 10.

Here are a few examples:

#60=6.0×10^1#

#5,230=5.23×10^3#

#0.02=2.0×10^-2#

#1.2=1.2×10^0#