Order of

magnitude

An order of magnitude is an
approximation of the logarithm of
a value relative to some
contextually understood reference
value, usually 10, interpreted as
the base of the logarithm and the
representative of values of
magnitude one. Logarithmic
:
 distributions are common in
nature and considering the order
of magnitude of values sampled
from such a distribution can be
more intuitive. When the reference
value is 10, the order of
magnitude can be understood as
the number of digits in the base-
10 representation of the value.
Similarly, if the reference value is
one of some powers of 2, since
computers store data in a binary
format, the magnitude can be
understood in terms of the
amount of computer memory
:
 needed to store that value.[1]

Differences in order of magnitude

can be measured on a base-10
logarithmic scale in "decades"
(i.e., factors of ten).[2] Examples of
numbers of different magnitudes
can be found at Orders of
magnitude (numbers).

Definition
Generally, the order of magnitude
of a number is the smallest power
of 10 used to represent that
number.[3] To work out the order
:
 of magnitude of a number , the
number is first expressed in the
following form:

where , or

approximately
. Then,
represents the order of magnitude
of the number. The order of
magnitude can be any integer.
The table below enumerates the
order of magnitude of some
numbers in light of this definition:
:
 Number Expression in Order of magnitude

0.2 2 × 10−1 −1

1 1 × 100 0

5 0.5 × 101 1

6 0.6 × 101 1

31 3.1 × 101 1

32 0.32 × 102 2

999 0.999 × 103 3

1000 1 × 103 3

The geometric mean of

and is , meaning that
a value of exactly (i.e., )
represents a geometric halfway
point within the range of possible
values of .

Some use a simpler definition

where ,[4] perhaps
because the arithmetic mean of
:
 and approaches
for increasing .
This definition has the effect of
lowering the values of slightly:

Number Expression in Order of magnitude

0.2 2 × 10−1 −1

1 1 × 100 0

5 0.5 × 101 1

6 0.6 × 101 1

31 3.1 × 101 1

32 3.2 × 101 1

999 0.999 × 103 3

1000 1 × 103 3

Uses
Orders of magnitude are used to
make approximate comparisons. If
numbers differ by one order of
:
 magnitude, x is about ten times
different in quantity than y. If
values differ by two orders of
magnitude, they differ by a factor
of about 100. Two numbers of the
same order of magnitude have
roughly the same scale: the larger
value is less than ten times the
smaller value. The growing
amounts of Internet data have led
to addition of new SI prefixes over
time, most recently in 2022.[5]

Prefix
In words Decimal
(Symbol)

quecto-
nonillionth 0.000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 001
(q)

octillionth ronto- (r) 0.000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 001
:
 septillionth yocto- 0.000 000 000 000 000 000 000 001
(y)

zepto-
sextillionth 0.000 000 000 000 000 000 001
(z)

quintillionth atto- (a) 0.000 000 000 000 000 001

quadrillionth femto- (f) 0.000 000 000 000 001

trillionth pico- (p) 0.000 000 000 001

billionth nano- (n) 0.000 000 001

micro-
millionth 0.000 001
(µ)

thousandth milli- (m) 0.001

hundredth centi- (c) 0.01

tenth deci- (d) 0.1

one 1

deca-
ten 10
(da)

hecto-
hundred 100
(h)

thousand kilo- (k) 1000

mega-
million 1 000 000
(M)

billion giga- (G) 1 000 000 000

trillion tera- (T) 1 000 000 000 000

quadrillion peta- (P) 1 000 000 000 000 000

quintillion exa- (E) 1 000 000 000 000 000 000

sextillion zetta- (Z) 1 000 000 000 000 000 000 000

septillion yotta- (Y) 1 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000

ronna-
octillion 1 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000
:
 (R)

quetta-
nonillion 1 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000
(Q)

Prefix
In words Decimal
(Symbol)

Calculating the order of

magnitude

The order of magnitude of a

number is, intuitively speaking,
the number of powers of 10
contained in the number. More
precisely, the order of magnitude
of a number can be defined in
terms of the common logarithm,
usually as the integer part of the
logarithm, obtained by truncation.
:
 For example, the number
4 000 000 has a logarithm (in
base 10) of 6.602; its order of
magnitude is 6. When truncating,
a number of this order of
magnitude is between 106 and
107. In a similar example, with the
phrase "He had a seven-figure
income", the order of magnitude
is the number of figures minus
one, so it is very easily determined
without a calculator to 6. An order
of magnitude is an approximate
position on a logarithmic scale.
:
 Order-of-magnitude
estimate

An order-of-magnitude estimate
of a variable, whose precise value
is unknown, is an estimate
rounded to the nearest power of
ten. For example, an order-of-
magnitude estimate for a variable
between about 3 billion and 30
billion (such as the human
population of the Earth) is 10
billion. To round a number to its
nearest order of magnitude, one
rounds its logarithm to the nearest
:
 integer. Thus 4 000 000, which
has a logarithm (in base 10) of
6.602, has 7 as its nearest order
of magnitude, because "nearest"
implies rounding rather than
truncation. For a number written in
scientific notation, this logarithmic
rounding scale requires rounding
up to the next power of ten when
the multiplier is greater than the
square root of ten (about 3.162).
For example, the nearest order of
magnitude for 1.7 × 108 is 8,
whereas the nearest order of
magnitude for 3.7 × 108 is 9. An
:
 order-of-magnitude estimate is
sometimes also called a zeroth
order approximation.

Order of magnitude
difference

An order-of-magnitude difference
between two values is a factor of
10. For example, the mass of the
planet Saturn is 95 times that of
Earth, so Saturn is two orders of
magnitude more massive than
Earth. Order-of-magnitude
differences are called decades
:
 when measured on a logarithmic
scale.

Non-decimal orders of
magnitude
Other orders of magnitude may
be calculated using bases other
than 10. The ancient Greeks
ranked the nighttime brightness
of celestial bodies by 6 levels in
which each level was the fifth root
of one hundred (about 2.512) as
bright as the nearest weaker level
of brightness, and thus the
:
 brightest level being 5 orders of
magnitude brighter than the
weakest indicates that it is
(1001/5)5 or a factor of 100 times
brighter.

The different decimal numeral

systems of the world use a larger
base to better envision the size of
the number, and have created
names for the powers of this
larger base. The table shows what
number the order of magnitude
aim at for base 10 and for base
1 000 000. It can be seen that the
:
 order of magnitude is included in
the number name in this example,
because bi- means 2 and tri-
means 3 (these make sense in the
long scale only), and the suffix -
illion tells that the base is
1 000 000. But the number
names billion, trillion themselves
(here with other meaning than in
the first chapter) are not names of
the orders of magnitudes, they
are names of "magnitudes", that
is the numbers
1 000 000 000 000 etc.
:
 Is
Order of Short Long
log10 Is log1 000 000 of
magnitude scale scale
of

1 10 1 000 000 million million

2 100 1 000 000 000 000 trillion billion

3 1000 1 000 000 000 000 000 000 quintillion trillion

SI units in the table at right are

used together with SI prefixes,
which were devised with mainly
base 1000 magnitudes in mind.
The IEC standard prefixes with
base 1024 were invented for use
in electronic technology.

The ancient apparent magnitudes

for the brightness of stars uses
the base and is
reversed. The modernized version
:
 has however turned into a
logarithmic scale with non-integer
values.

Extremely large numbers

For extremely large numbers, a

generalized order of magnitude
can be based on their double
logarithm or super-logarithm.
Rounding these downward to an
integer gives categories between
very "round numbers", rounding
them to the nearest integer and
applying the inverse function
:
 gives the "nearest" round number.

The double logarithm yields the

categories:

..., 1.0023–1.023, 1.023–1.26,

1.26–10, 10–1010, 1010–10100,
10100–101000, ...

(the first two mentioned, and the

extension to the left, may not be
very useful, they merely
demonstrate how the sequence
mathematically continues to the
left).

The super-logarithm yields the

:
 categories:

10 10 10 10
0–1, 1–10, 10–10 , 10 –10 ,
10 10 10
10
10 –10 10 , ... or

0–010, 010–110, 110–210,

210–310, 310–410, ...

The "midpoints" which determine

which round number is nearer are
in the first case:

1.076, 2.071, 1453, 4.20 × 1031,

1.69 × 10316,...

and, depending on the

interpolation method, in the
second case
:
 −0.301, 0.5, 3.162, 1453,
1 × 101453, ,

,... (see notation

of extremely large numbers)

For extremely small numbers (in

the sense of close to zero) neither
method is suitable directly, but the
generalized order of magnitude of
the reciprocal can be considered.

Similar to the logarithmic scale

one can have a double
logarithmic scale (example
provided here) and super-
:
 logarithmic scale. The intervals
above all have the same length on
them, with the "midpoints"
actually midway. More generally, a
point midway between two points
corresponds to the generalised f-
mean with f(x) the corresponding
function log log x or slog x. In the
case of log log x, this mean of two
numbers (e.g. 2 and 16 giving 4)
does not depend on the base of
the logarithm, just like in the case
of log x (geometric mean, 2 and 8
giving 4), but unlike in the case of
log log log x (4 and 65 536 giving
:
 16 if the base is 2, but not
otherwise).

See also
Big O notation
Decibel
Mathematical operators and
symbols in Unicode
Names of large numbers
Names of small numbers
Number sense
Orders of magnitude
(acceleration)
:
 Orders of magnitude (area)
Orders of magnitude (bit rate)
Orders of magnitude (current)
Orders of magnitude (energy)
Orders of magnitude (force)
Orders of magnitude
(frequency)
Orders of magnitude
(illuminance)
Orders of magnitude (length)
Orders of magnitude (mass)
Orders of magnitude (numbers)
Orders of magnitude (power)
:
 Orders of magnitude (pressure)
Orders of magnitude (radiation)
Orders of magnitude (speed)
Orders of magnitude
(temperature)
Orders of magnitude (time)
Orders of magnitude (voltage)
Orders of magnitude (volume)
Powers of Ten
Scientific notation
Unicode symbols for CJK
Compatibility includes SI Unit
symbols
:
 Valuation (algebra), an
algebraic generalization of
"order of magnitude"
Scale (analytical tool)

References
1. "Magnitude: Short and Clear |
MIT - KeepNotes" (https://keep
notes.com/mit/multivariable-cal
culus/107-magnitude) .
keepnotes.com. Retrieved
2023-07-11.
2. Brians, Paus. "Orders of
Magnitude" (http://public.wsu.e
du/~brians/errors/orders.html)
. Retrieved 9 May 2013.
:
 3. "Order of Magnitude" (http://m
athworld.wolfram.com/Orderof
Magnitude.html) . Wolfram
MathWorld. Retrieved
3 January 2017. "Physicists
and engineers use the phrase
"order of magnitude" to refer to
the smallest power of ten
needed to represent a
quantity."
4. Shaalaa.com. "Answer the
following question. Describe
what is meant by order of
magnitude. - Physics |
Shaalaa.com" (https://www.sha
alaa.com/question-bank-solutio
ns/answer-the-following-questi
:
 on-describe-what-is-meant-by-
order-of-magnitude-significant
-figures_171864) .
www.shaalaa.com. Retrieved
2023-06-04.
5. Gibney, Elizabeth (2022). "How
many yottabytes in a
quettabyte? Extreme numbers
get new names" (https://www.n
ature.com/articles/d41586-02
2-03747-9) . Nature.
doi:10.1038/d41586-022-
03747-9 (https://doi.org/10.10
38%2Fd41586-022-03747-
9) . PMID 36400954 (https://p
ubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36400
954) . S2CID 253671538 (http
:
 s://api.semanticscholar.org/Cor
pusID:253671538) . Retrieved
20 November 2022.

Further reading
Asimov, Isaac, The Measure of
the Universe (1983).

External links
The Scale of the Universe 2 (htt
p://htwins.net/scale2/)
Interactive tool from Planck
length 10−35 meters to universe
size 1027
Cosmos – an Illustrated
:
 Dimensional Journey from
microcosmos to macrocosmos
(https://web.archive.org/web/2
0080412094332/http://www.s
hekpvar.net/~dna/Publications/
Cosmos/cosmos.html) – from
Digital Nature Agency
Powers of 10 (http://micro.mag
net.fsu.edu/primer/java/science
opticsu/powersof10/index.html
) , a graphic animated
illustration that starts with a
view of the Milky Way at 1023
meters and ends with
subatomic particles at 10−16
:
 meters.
What is Order of Magnitude? (h
ttp://www.vendian.org/envelope
/TemporaryURL/what_is_oom.h
tml)

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