Place Value × 10 and ÷ 10
Recognise that in a multi-digit number, a digit in one place represents 10 times as much as in the place to its right and 1/10 of what it represents in the place to its left
What a learner can do afterwards
- Explain that the 4 in 0.04 is 1/10 of the 4 in 0.4
- State that a digit moving one place left is ×10 and one place right is ÷10
- Compare the value of the 6 in 6,000 and in 0.006
The lesson
You already know a digit's value changes when it moves places in a whole number. That same rule keeps going past the ones place, right through the decimal point. Move a digit one place to the left, and it is worth 10 times as much. Move it one place to the right, and it is worth 10 times less.
Look at 0.4. The 4 sits in the tenths place, worth 4 tenths. Now look at 0.04. The 4 sits one place to the right, in the hundredths place. It moved right, so its value divided by 10: 4 tenths divided by 10 is 4 hundredths.
Remember: the decimal point never moves. Digits slide past it, growing ten times bigger to the left and ten times smaller to the right.
A digit's value is always ten times its neighbor one place to the right, and one tenth of its neighbor one place to the left.
Watch it
Where it sits
Where this leads
Jobs that lean on this skill. Follow one to see everything it is built on.
8 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.