Powers of ten chart
The powers of ten from a trillion down to a trillionth, with their names and matching metric prefixes. Each step changes the value by a factor of ten, which is the basis of the decimal system and scientific notation.
Powers of ten
| Power | Value | Name | Metric prefix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10¹² | 1,000,000,000,000 | trillion | tera (T) |
| 10⁹ | 1,000,000,000 | billion | giga (G) |
| 10⁶ | 1,000,000 | million | mega (M) |
| 10³ | 1,000 | thousand | kilo (k) |
| 10² | 100 | hundred | hecto (h) |
| 10¹ | 10 | ten | deca (da) |
| 10⁰ | 1 | one | — |
| 10⁻¹ | 0.1 | tenth | deci (d) |
| 10⁻² | 0.01 | hundredth | centi (c) |
| 10⁻³ | 0.001 | thousandth | milli (m) |
| 10⁻⁶ | 0.000001 | millionth | micro (μ) |
| 10⁻⁹ | 0.000000001 | billionth | nano (n) |
| 10⁻¹² | 0.000000000001 | trillionth | pico (p) |
A positive exponent counts how many times to multiply by ten, adding that many zeros; a negative exponent counts how many places to move the decimal to the right of one. Ten to the zero is 1, the anchor point. Each prefix in the metric system corresponds to one of these powers.
Need notation or prefixes?
See the Scientific Notation Chart and the Metric Prefix Chart.
Reading powers of ten
Ten to the power n means 1 followed by n zeros for positive n: ten to the sixth is 1,000,000. A negative power is a fraction: ten to the negative third is one thousandth, 0.001. This pattern makes the decimal system work, since each column in a written number is a power of ten.
Why they matter
Powers of ten underpin scientific notation, metric units, and orders of magnitude. Saying two quantities differ by three orders of magnitude means one is a thousand, ten to the third, times the other. Thinking in powers of ten keeps very large and very small numbers manageable.
FAQ
What is 10 to the power of 0?
1. Any nonzero number raised to the power zero equals one.
What does a negative power of ten mean?
A number smaller than one. Ten to the negative second is 0.01, or one hundredth.
What is an order of magnitude?
A factor of ten. Two values an order of magnitude apart differ by a factor of 10; three apart, by a factor of 1,000.