Big Numbers: Place Value to 10,000

Imagine you have a big jar of 3,472 marbles. Could you count every single one out loud? It would take ages! Big numbers need a system so we can understand them quickly. You already know that 34 means 3 tens and 4 ones. Today you will stretch that same idea all the way to 10,000.

Every number is made of digits — the symbols 0 to 9. The position of a digit tells you its value. We call this place value. For numbers up to 10,000 there are four columns, or places. From left to right they are: • Thousands (Th) — worth 1,000 each • Hundreds (H) — worth 100 each • Tens (T) — worth 10 each • Ones (O) — worth 1 each Think of the columns like different-sized boxes. A digit dropped into the Thousands box is worth one thousand times more than the same digit in the Ones box. For example, in the number 3,472: • The 3 is in the Thousands column → it is worth 3,000. • The 4 is in the Hundreds column → it is worth 400. • The 7 is in the Tens column → it is worth 70. • The 2 is in the Ones column → it is worth 2. We can write this as an expanded form: 3,000 + 400 + 70 + 2 = 3,472. Expanded form means breaking a number apart to show what each digit is worth. A zero is a placeholder. In 5,046 the zero sits in the Hundreds column to show there are no hundreds. Without it, the digits would fall into the wrong columns.