Order of magnitude

When some quantity is known to the nearest power of ten, it is said to be known to within one order of magnitude.

For instance:

A motorbike has a length of one meter.

A bus has a length of 10 meters.

A football field has a length of 100 m.

A hurricane has a diameter of 106 m.

Visible light has a wavelength of 5x10-6 m.

Atoms in a salt crystal are 10-10 m apart.

... to the nearest order of magnitude.

It has been said that an experimental physicist is - "Someone with a rough idea of orders of magnitude: what can be measured, and what can't."

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