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Order of Magnitude Calculations

Idea: An order of magnitude calculation is an estimate to determine if a more precise calculation is necessary. We round off or guess at various inputs to obtain a result that is usually reliable to within a factor of 10. Specifically, to get the order of magnitude of a given quantity, we round off to the closest power of 10 (example: 75 kg $\rightarrow$ 102 kg).


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10/9/1997