The Powers of 10

Class of One 1
Ones Ten 10
Hundred 100

Class of One thousand 1,000

Thousands Ten thousand 10,000
Hundred thousand 100,000

Class of One million 1,000,000

Millions Ten million 10,000,000
Hundred million 100,000,000

Class of One billion 1,000,000,000

Billions Ten billion 10,000,000,000
Hundred billion 100,000,000,000
http://www.themathpage.com/arith/powers-of-10.htm

Example 1. Read this number:

256,312,785,649,408,163

Answer. Starting from the left, 256, read each three-digit group. Then say the name of the class.

Say:

"256 Quadrillion, 312 Trillion, 785 Billion, 649 Million, 408 Thousand, 163."

Do not say the class name "Ones."

Example 2. To distinguish the classes, place commas in this number:

8792456

Answer. Starting from the right, place commas every three digits:

8,792,456

Read the number:

"8 million, 792 thousand, 456."

Example 3. Read this number: 7,000,020,002

Answer. "Seven billion , twenty thousand, two."

When a class is absent, we do not say its name; we do not say, "Seven billion, no million, ..."

Also, every class has three digits and so we must distinguish the following:

002 "Two"
020 "Twenty"
200 "Two hundred"

As for "and," in speech it is common to say "Six hundred and nine," but in writing we should
reserve "and" for the decimal point, as we will see in the next Lesson. (For example, we should
write $609.50 as "Six hundred nine dollars and fifty cents." Not "Six hundred and nine
dollars.")

Example 4. Write in numerals:

Four hundred eight million, twenty-nine thousand, three hundred fifty-six.

Answer. Pick out the classes: "million", "thousand". Each class (except perhaps the first class
on the left) has exactly three digits:

Example 5. Write in numerals:

Five billion, sixteen thousand, nine.

Answer. After the billions, we expect the millions, but it is absent. Therefore write

5,000,016,009

Again, we must write "sixteen thousand" as 016; and "nine" as 009; because each class must
have three digits. The exception is the class on the extreme left. We may write "Five" as 5 rather
than 005.

When writing a four-digit number, such as Four thousand five hundred, it is permissible to omit
the comma and write 4500. In fact, we often read that as "Forty-five hundred." But when a
number has more than four digits, then for the sake of clarity we should always place the
commas.

Example 6. Distinguish the following:

a) Two hundred seventeen million b) Two hundred million seventeen

Answers.
a) 217,000,000 b) 200,000,017