Our fifth graders have been exploring how the numbers of 10, 100, or 1,000 can be written as products of the number 10. These numbers are called powers of 10. The exponent tells how many times to use the 10 as a factor.
Our mathematicians in Ms. Booth's class used place value charts and a few tricks to compare the value of a given number. Our fifth graders also learned that when multiplying a decimal by 10, 100, 1000 and so on, the decimal point shifts to the right as many places as there are zeros in the power of 10. Multiplying by 10 increases the place value of each digit and dividing by 10 decreases the place value of each digit.
Mastering these patterns helps simplify computation and makes complex calculations easier.