Estimation and Orders of

Magnitude

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Estimation and Orders of Magnitude

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Estimation
Martin uses his calculator to work out 39 × 72.

The display shows an answer of 1053.

How do you know this answer must be wrong?

39 × 72  40 × 70 = 2800

“is approximately equal to”

You can also check the answer by multiplying together the

last digits of 39 and 72: 9 × 2 = 18.

The product of 39 and 72 must therefore end in an 8.

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Estimation

How could we estimate the answer to 3.5 × 17.5?

Round to the decimals to the nearest whole numbers to

estimate a range:

between 3 × 17 = 51 and 4 × 18 = 72

Find the number half-way between

51 and 72:

72 – 51 = 21

21 ÷ 2 = 10.5

51 + 10.5 = 61.5

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Estimating using a number line (1)
Jessica is trying to estimate which number multiplied by
itself will give the answer 32.
She knows that 5 × 5 = 25 and that 6 × 6 = 36.
The number must therefore be between 5 and 6.
She draws the following scales to help her find an
approximate answer.

25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36

5 5.64 6

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Estimating using a number line (2)
Use the number line method to estimate which number
multiplied by itself will give an answer of 40.
We know that 6 × 6 = 36 and that 7 × 7 = 49.
Draw a scale from 36 to 49.
Underneath, draw a scale from 6 to 7.

36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49

6 6.31 7
The number line method gives a good
approximation, but not an exact answer.
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Estimation and Orders of Magnitude

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Making sure answers are sensible
When completing a calculation, whether using a calculator,
a mental method or a written method always check that the
answer is sensible.

 Make sure that the sum of two odd numbers is even.

 When multiplying two large numbers together, check the

last digit. For example, 329 × 842 must end in an 8
because 9 × 2 = 18.

 Use checks for divisibility when multiplying by 2, 3, 4, 5,

6, 8 and 9. For example, when any number is multiplied
by 9 the sum of the digits should be a multiple of 9.

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Using rounding and approximation
Check that answers to calculations are of the right order of
magnitude by rounding the numbers in the calculation to find
an approximate answer.

Sam calculates that 387.4 × 0.45 is 174.33.

Could this be correct?

387.4 × 0.45  390 × 0.5 = 195

This approximate answer is a little larger

than the calculated answer but since both
numbers were rounded up, there is a
good chance that the answer is correct.

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Using inverse operations
Use a calculator to check this calculation using
inverse operations: 34.2 × 45.9 = 1569.78

Divide: 1569.8 ÷ 34.2

If the calculation is correct then the answer

will be 45.9.

Use a calculator to check this calculation using

inverse operations: 4 of 224 = 128
7

Multiply: 128 × 7
4
If the calculation is correct then the
answer will be 224.

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Using an equivalent calculation
Write two calculations that are equivalent to 22 × 98.

We can either write 22 as (20 + 2)

or we can write 98 as (100 – 2).

This give us two equivalent calculations:

(20 + 2) × 98 = 1960 + 196

and

22 × (100 – 2) = 2200 – 44

The answer to all three equivalent calculations is 2156.

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Estimation and Orders of Magnitude

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Length
The SI unit for length is the metre. This is not convenient for
some measurements, so a larger or smaller version of the
unit is used.

1 kilometre (km) = 1,000 metres (m)

1 metre (m) = 100 centimetres (cm)

1 centimetre (cm) = 10 millimetres (mm)

Which unit would you use to measure a field?

Which unit would you use to measure a hand span?

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Word meanings
The word used in front of the unit can often tell you
more about its size.

Kilo means 1,000.

For example, a kilometre is 1,000 metres.

Centi means one hundredth.

For example, a centimetre is a one
hundredth of a metre: 1 m = 100 cm.

Milli means one thousandth.

For example, a millimetre is a one
thousandth of a metre: 1 m = 1,000 mm.

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Mass
The SI unit for mass is the kilogram. The mass of an object
is the amount of matter it contains.

1 tonne = 1,000 kilograms (kg)

1 kilogram (kg) = 1,000 grams (kg)

1 gram = 1,000 milligrams (mg)

Which unit would you use to measure the mass of a person?

Which unit would you use to measure out a solid for a

chemical reaction in a beaker?

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Orders of magnitude
An order of magnitude is the multiplication or division of a
measurement by 10.
For example, a humpback whale that is 13 metres long is
one order of magnitude larger than a human who is 1.3
metres long.
This is one order
13 ÷ 1.3 = 10 of magnitude.

Another way to think about order of magnitude is as

powers of 10.

101 = 10 = 1 order of magnitude

102 = 100 = 2 orders of magnitude
103 = 1000 = 3 orders of magnitude

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Orders of magnitude
Moving the decimal point one place to the right is the same as:

10
10 10 10 10

3.5 x 104 =3.5 0 0 0 = 35,000

Moving the decimal point one place to the left is the same as:
10
10 10 10

6.0 x 10-3 =0 0 0 6.0 = 0.006

Every multiplication or division by 10 is called an order of
magnitude.

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Order of magnitude example
A bumble bee is 2.9 cm and the ocean liner Queen
Elizabeth 2 (QE2) is about 290 metres. How many orders
of magnitude smaller than the QE2 is the bumble bee?

First, convert the

2.9 cm = 0.029 metres
bee’s size to metres:

Divide the size of the QE2

290 ÷ 0.029 = 10,000
by the size of the bee:

Write 10,000 in scientific notation

10,000 = 1 × 104
to find the order of magnitude:

The bumble bee is 1 × 104, or four orders

of magnitude, smaller than the QE2!

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