From: Loyd <Loydlin@aol.com>
To: Teacher2Teacher Public Discussion
Date: 2001110217:51:16
Subject: Re: Order of Magnitude


Order of magnitude refers to powers of ten.  Thus, 10 is an order of
magnitude larger than 1.  1000 is three orders of magnitude larger
than 1.

Just suppose that that someone said that the diameter of the universe
is 10^79 centimeters across and it was discovered that they were wrong
and that the actual diameter was 10^80 centimeters across. The first
estimate would be one order of magnitude too small (of course, I don't
know the diameter of the universe).  

Order of magnitude is useful in astronomy, physics, chemistry and
engineering.  

I am not sure it isn't premature to teach fifth graders this topic
except for very bright kids.  I didn't learn what it meant until I was
out of college, working in a place with lots of engineers.  There it
was a slight put-down if you were an engineer and didn't know what
that meant. 

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