More on Multiplying Decimals

Multiplying by powers of 10

When you multiply a decimal number by 10, 100, 1000, etc., the number gets larger.

thousands hundreds tens ones $\bullet$ tenths hundredths thousandths
$3$ $\bullet$ $1$ $2$
$3$ $1$ $\bullet$ $2$ $\color{red}{\longleftarrow 3.12\times 10=31.2}$
$3$ $1$ $2$ $\bullet$ $0$ $\color{red}{\longleftarrow 3.12\times 100=312}$

The table shows that when you multiply a number by $10, 100, 1000$, etc. the number gets bigger so the digits move left:

In practice the easiest way to multiply by $10, 100, 1000$, etc. is to move the decimal point to the right.

So the decimal point moves to the right by the number of places that matches the number of zeros in the number you are multiplying by.

Complete the answers to the following questions.

$122.45\times 10=$

$-60\times 100=$

$-7.1\times 1000=$

$2.3986\times 100=$

$-89.7\times 10000=$

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