Master powers of ten and zero exponent rules. Alberta Grade 9 mathematics with clear explanations and examples.
Lesson 2.2 of Powers & Exponent Laws in Grade 9 Math — Alberta curriculum lessons.
When we write a power with base 10, it tells us how many times to multiply 10 by itself. Each multiplication by 10 moves every digit one place to the left in our place-value system.
Examples.
Key Pattern. The exponent tells us exactly how many zeros appear after the 1.
Every time the exponent increases by 1, the number becomes 10 times larger. That's because we're multiplying by another 10 each time.
You can think of this like shifting the decimal one place to the right every time you add a power.
Powers of ten are the foundation for place value and scientific notation. They let us quickly write large numbers without counting zeros and help us understand how the decimal system scales.
Place Value: Our number system is based on powers of 10 (ones, tens, hundreds, thousands); Scientific Notation: Used to write very large numbers like 3.2 × 10⁶ for 3,200,000; Measurement: Metric system uses powers of 10 (millimeters, centimeters, meters, kilometers); Technology: Computer memory and data storage often use powers of 10
You've learned that exponents tell us how many times to multiply a number by itself.
Pattern Review.
So what about 10⁰?
At first it might seem strange — we're not multiplying at all!
But there's a pattern that explains it perfectly.
Step by Step Pattern.
Look at how the numbers change each time we go down by 1 exponent:
We're dividing by 10 each step.
Following the Division Pattern.
✅ The Answer. That's why 10⁰ = 1.
Universal Rule. Any non-zero number to the power of 0 equals 1.
Examples.
No matter how big or small the base is — if the exponent is 0, the answer is 1.
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