Place value refers to the value of each digit in a number based on its position, or “place,” in the number. In other words, the value of a digit depends on where it is located in the number.
Let’s look at an example. In the number 456, the “4” is in the hundreds place, the “5” is in the tens place, and the “6” is in the ones place. This means that the value of the “4” is 400, the value of the “5” is 50, and the value of the “6” is 6.
To write a number using place value, we use a system called the place value chart. The chart has columns for ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, and so on, depending on how many digits the number has. Each column represents a power of 10.
For example, the ones column is the first column on the right, and it represents 10^0, or 1. The next column to the left is the tens column, which represents 10^1, or 10. The third column from the right is the hundreds column, which represents 10^2, or 100. And so on.
To write the number 456 using the place value chart, we would put a 6 in the ones column, a 5 in the tens column, and a 4 in the hundreds column.