Orders of Magnitude

• What does "order of magnitude" refer to?

  A way to compare sizes using powers of 10
• How many orders of magnitude bigger is a cell that is 100 micrometres compared to one that is 10 micrometres?


  1
• What is the correct order of magnitude for a human cell?

  10 micrometres
• What is 1 order of magnitude more than 1,000?

  10,000
• What is 2 orders of magnitude less than 1,000?

  10
• What does "1 order of magnitude" mean?

  • A tenfold increase or decrease
  • Represents a factor of 10
• How many times bigger is something that is 2 orders of magnitude greater than another thing?

  100 times bigger
• Is 1,000,000 two orders of magnitude bigger than 10,000?

  No
• Why do scientists use orders of magnitude?

  To simplify comparisons of sizes
• What unit is often used when comparing cells and microorganisms?

  Micrometres