Video Transcript
Find the value of the digit two in
the number 27,940.
In this question, we’re given a
five-digit number. And we know that the position of
each one of these five digits really matters. It’s what gives them their
value. And we’re asked to find the value
of one of these digits. It’s the digit two. Can you see it right at the
beginning, on the left? To help us find out what this digit
two is worth, let’s model our number using place value counters.
The place with the lowest value is
all the way on the right here. It’s the ones place. And there are zero ones, so we
don’t need any counters. Next comes the tens place. The digit four is in the tens place
in this number. So, we could use four 10s
counters. And we know that four 10s are worth
40. The digit nine is in the next place
along. This is the hundreds place. And nine lots of 100 means this
digit has a value of 900. After the hundreds comes the
thousands place. The digit seven is in this
place. And seven lots of 1,000 is worth
7,000. So, we’ve slowly been building our
number up all the way to the digit that really matters. This is the digit we’re being asked
about.
Which place is the digit two
in? After the thousands comes the ten
thousands place. And because the digit two is in
this position, we’re going to need two counters, each worth 10,000. Now to find out what this digit is
worth altogether, we’re going to have to count in ten thousands twice, one for each
counter. And if we can count in tens, we can
count in ten thousands. It’s just as easy, 10,000,
20,000.
We’ve used our knowledge of place
value to understand that the digit two is in the ten thousands place in this
number. And that’s how we know the digit
two isn’t worth two or 20 or 200. The value of the digit two in the
number 27,940 is 20,000.
