1-4
Each position in the positional notation system represents a power of the base, or radix. A POWER is
the number of times a base is multiplied by itself. The power is written above and to the right of the base
and is called an EXPONENT. Examine the following base 10 line graph:
Now let’s look at the value of the base 10 number 427.5 with the positional notation line graph:
You can see that the power of the base is multiplied by the number in that position to determine the
value for that position.
The following graph illustrates the progression of powers of 10:
