Ordering large numbers: greatest to least
About this video
The video orders two groups of numbers in the millions from greatest to least. It compares digits place by place from the most significant place, checking that the digits really are in the same place before comparing them.
You'll be able to
- order numbers in the millions from greatest to least.
- find the first place where numbers differ and use it to compare them.
- write an ordered list using the greater than sign (>).
Key words
- greatest to least
- Putting numbers in order starting with the biggest and ending with the smallest.
- most significant place value
- The biggest place in the numbers you are comparing, on the far left.
- greater than sign (>)
- A symbol whose open side faces the bigger number.
Transcript
- [Instructor] What I would like you to do is pause this video, and for each of these groups of numbers, we have this first group of three numbers in this yellow color, and then we have this next group of numbers in this green color. I want you to order each of the groups from greatest to least.
All right, now let's do this together. And the way that I would do it is to go to the most significant place value. So I'd start on the left. And it's good to check whether we're starting truly in the same place value. It's not always the first number. For example, if instead of 13 million, this was just three million, the first number might be a three, which is larger than a one or a four, but this one is in the 10 million place.
So we have to make sure we're comparing the right, the same values. Now, this isn't three million, this is 13 million. So let's start in the 10 millions place and we have one 10 million in every situation. So those are looking similar. Then we could go to the millions place.
We have a three, a four, and a four. And remember, we're ordering from greatest to least. So we immediately see when we look at the millions that this has the least number of millions, this 13 million here. We don't even have to look at anything else. So we already know that the number here on the left is the smallest of the numbers.
So if we're ordering from greatest to least, it's going to be over here, 13,467,200. We've used that one up. Now we're just gonna compete between these two to see which one is larger and which one is smaller. We could go to the a hundred thousands place. This has 800,000s. This has 400,000s.
So this one over here is going to be the greatest. It is the largest of the numbers. So I could write it right over here. 14,862,301 is going to be greater than this number over there. 14,421,865, which is greater than the 13,467,200. All right, now let's do this next group of three numbers.
Same idea. Let's make sure that we're starting the same place value. Millions, millions, millions. And they all have fours there. So no difference there. Then we go to the hundred thousands. Five, five, five, no difference. Then we go to the 10,000s. Six, six, seven.
So this one has the most 10,000. So this is the greatest. So let me rewrite this number down here. We're going greatest to least. So 4,574,210. I used this number up. And now let's keep going in the competition between the next two numbers. So now we go to the thousands place, still the same.
And then we can go to the hundreds place, 200s, 300s. So this is the next largest number here. It has more hundreds than this one over here on the left. So we have our next number is going to be the same color, 4,562,310, which in turn is also greater than the smallest number, which is 4,562,290.
And there we have it. This number is greater than this number, which is greater than that number. We have ordered from greatest to least.
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