A Question of Scale


In standard scientific notation, numerical quantities are written as
$$
a\times 10^b
$$
where $b$ is an integer and $a$ is a decimal number less than $2$ and not less than $1$.

Construct your best estimates of the lengths of the quantities on the slips of paper and rank them according to their exponent $b$ when written in scientific notation.

Use units of metres, so that, for example, $1.0 \times 10^3$ would correspond to $1$km.

The challenge is to correctly rank all of the quantities.

Note that there is one slip of paper per exponent, so you might be able to use detective work to rank unfamiliar quantities.

Extension task: Construct your own set of questions for this activity.