Powers of Ten

The Power of Thinking in Powers of Ten

Numerically it can be very cumbersome to describe extremely large or small sizes.
Our galaxy is about 1000000000000000000000000000 meters across while an atom is about 0.0000000001 meters across. There is a way to easily represent numbers of large or small magnitude - exponential notation.
The diameter of our galaxy in meters is 1 followed by 27 zeros. This can be represented by the number 1 x 10²⁷ or simply 10²⁷ meters. The diameter of a typical atom can be represented by 1 x 10^-10 or simply 10^-10 meters. If the exponent is positive then multiply by 10 the number of times described by the exponent. If the exponent is negative then divide by 10 the number of times described by the exponent.
The difference between multiplying by 10 or dividing by 10 is called an order of magnitude or a “power of ten”. For example, 100 (10²) is one order of magnitude or power of ten higher than 10 (10¹) and two orders of magnitude or powers of ten higher than 1 (10⁰). The number 1,000 (10³) is three orders of magnitude or powers of ten lower than 1,000,000 (10⁶).
Go to the following website: http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/java/electronmicroscopy/magnify1/index.html
Pick an object to view with the virtual electron microscope.

Record in your binders a table with the following:

Object	Lowest Magnification	Higest Magnification	Change in Magnification (# of powers of ten)