Place Value × 10 Pattern
Recognise that in a multi-digit whole number, a digit in one place represents ten times what it represents in the place to its right (e.g. 700 ÷ 70 = 10)
What a learner can do afterwards
- Explain that the 3 in 3,000 is ten times the 3 in 300
- Complete: 700 ÷ 70 = __ and explain using place-value reasoning
- State how many times greater the value of the 5 in 50,000 is than the 5 in 5,000
1 · Read
You have compared big numbers place by place. Here is the pattern that connects those places: when a digit moves one place to the left, its value becomes exactly ten times bigger. The pattern also runs the other way: moving one place to the right makes a digit worth ten times less. Each extra place multiplies by another 10: two places left is one hundred times, and three places left is one thousand times.
Look at 700 and 70. The 7 in 700 sits in the hundreds place. The 7 in 70 sits in the tens place, one place to the right. So the 7 in 700 is worth ten times the 7 in 70. That is why 700 divided by 70 equals 10, written 700 ÷ 70 = 10. The ÷ sign and the / sign both mean divide.
Each step a digit moves to the left adds one more zero to its value, and one more zero means times 10.
Move a digit one place to the left, and its value multiplies by 10.
2 · Watch
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Where it sits
Where this leads
Jobs that lean on this skill. Follow one to see everything it is built on.
17 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.