Up to 10 million

Every place in a number has a row of its own here, from the millions down to the ones. The population of a town is one million, fifty-two thousand, seven hundred. What is the value of the digit 5 in this number? Split the number into the values of its non-zero digits. One million. Fifty thousand. Two thousand. Seven hundred. The three places holding a zero are worth nothing at all, so those four parts are the whole number. Now the 5. The ones place is the only place that never moves. So count the places out from there. Ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, ten thousands. The 5 is in the ten thousands place. One of that place is worth ten thousand. And the 5 says there are 5 of them. So the value of the digit 5 is 5 times ten thousand. Fifty thousand. The value of the digit 5 in this number is fifty thousand.

Your turn. Here is a new number. In three million, seventy thousand and three hundred, the digit 3 appears twice. Find the difference between the value of the first 3 and the value of the second 3. Try it first. Pause if you like. Same move. Read the number down the table. Three million. Seventy thousand. Three hundred. Both 3s are the same mark, and they are in different places. The first 3 is in the millions place, so it is 3 times one million. Three million. The second 3 is in the hundreds place, so it is 3 times one hundred. Three hundred. One 3 is worth three million and the other is worth three hundred. The difference between them is three million minus three hundred. Two million, nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand, seven hundred. So the difference between the two values is two million, nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand, seven hundred. The same mark is in two places in this number. In the millions place it is three million. In the hundreds place it is three hundred. A digit's value is the digit and its place, together.