Thread: orders of magnitude

This question is not for a homework assignment.. It's just something that has really been bugging me


If I was to decrease the number 125,278,840 by two orders of magnitude

would I simply divide it by 100?

I've read somewhere that in order to increase a number by two orders of magnitude you multiply by 100


Thanks for your help!

Originally Posted by xcelxp

If I was to decrease the number 125,278,840 by two orders of magnitude

would I simply divide it by 100?

Yes, assuming you are scaling by 10. In general, to increase a number by orders of magnitude, multiply by In this case we have

Why does this make sense? The order of magnitude of a number is basically the largest power of ten that is less than the number. is on the order of (its order of magnitude is 8), and to decrease it by two orders of magnitude would make it on the order of Dividing by accomplishes this.