Drag the slider or step one power of ten at a time. Watch the measurement readout: only two things ever change — the coefficient and the exponent. Flip on standard form to see why nobody wants to write all those zeros.
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A student's arm span
1 × 100 m
Our home base: about one meter. Every slider step multiplies or divides the view by ten.
order of magnitude
10⁻¹⁵ m (nucleus)10²⁶ m (universe)
Part 2
Magnitude Match
Two objects from the Zoom face off. Lock in your prediction first — how many times as large is one than the other? Then the reveal shows the division, one power of ten at a time.
Round 1 of 5
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Part 3
The Exponent Machines
Three machines, one habit: expand, count, then trust the shortcut. Every exponent rule is just careful counting.
Start at 10³ = 1,000. Every press of ÷ 10 drops the exponent by one and divides the value by ten. Watch what the pattern forces 10⁰ and the negative exponents to be.
Power
Value
What happened
Part 4
Summit Quiz
Ten questions from nucleus to universe. Wrong answers get a hint that points you back to the exact machine or zoom stop that proves the right idea.
📦 Word Box
Base
The number being multiplied repeatedly. In 10⁴, the base is 10.
Exponent (power)
How many copies of the base are multiplied. In 10⁴, the exponent is 4.
Product rule
Same base, multiplying: add the exponents. 10³ × 10⁴ = 10⁷.
Quotient rule
Same base, dividing: subtract the exponents. 10⁶ ÷ 10² = 10⁴.
Power rule
A power raised to a power: multiply the exponents. (10²)³ = 10⁶.
Zero exponent
Any nonzero base to the 0 power equals 1. The Pattern Machine forces it: 10 ÷ 10 = 1.
Negative exponent
A reciprocal, not a negative number. 10⁻² = 1/10² = 0.01.
Scientific notation
A number written as (coefficient) × 10ⁿ, where the coefficient is at least 1 and less than 10.
Coefficient
The front number in scientific notation — it must be at least 1 and less than 10.
Standard form
The everyday way of writing a number, with all its digits and zeros shown.
Order of magnitude
A number's power of ten. Each order of magnitude is a factor of 10 — one slider step on the Zoom.
E-notation
Calculator shorthand: 4.5E8 means 4.5 × 10⁸, never 4.5⁸.