Basically, the base ten number system works like this: certain human beings came up with ten distict number symbols (0-9), and started counting....

0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9....Oops!

When they got to the last symbol, they needed to figure out how to write the number for the value that comes after 9. So, they started over at 0, and tacked on a number to the left that helped keep track the number of times we got past "9". So, that's where the tens place comes in...

 

...1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,7 , 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, (hey! we got to 9 again, so we have to bump that tens place up one), 20, 21, 22......and so on, and so on....

Once the tens place gets past 9, you have to add another number that counts up the number of times you get to one hundred.

 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, ....

 So, this is where you get the ones place, the tens place, the hundreds place, the thousands place, and all the other places you tack on as your numbers get bigger and bigger.

Take the number 1,234:

1
2
3
4
1000s place
100s Place
10s place
1s place

You could rewrite 1,234 as:

1*1000 + 2*100+ 3*10 + 4*1

Why would we want to?

Note that these "places" are powers of "10" . You know, 100=1, 101=10, 102=100, 103=1000, 104=10000, etc, etc.

(remember: any number other than 0 to the power "0" equals one!)

 

Of course! We're in a base 10 system. All the places are powers of 10.

Question 1: Why do you think that we came up with a base ten number system? Why not base eight, or base sixteen? What's so special about the number ten?

 

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