Number and Numeration

Lesson Objectives

By the end of this lesson, students should be able to:

Read and write numbers up to 1 million in words and figures.
Identify the place value of digits in whole numbers and decimals.
Convert numbers between figures and words accurately.
Explain the value of a digit based on its place.

Introduction

Numbers are part of our everyday life — from phone numbers to money, population figures, and more. In this lesson, you will learn how to correctly read and write numbers as large as 1,000,000 and understand how the position of each digit affects its value.

Core Lesson Content

A number is a way of representing quantity. Numbers can be written in two main forms:

Figures: Example — $345,678$
Words: Example — Three hundred and forty-five thousand, six hundred and seventy-eight

Place Value

Place value tells us the value of a digit based on its position in a number. For example, in the number $452,137$ :

4 is in the hundred thousands place — $4 \times 100,000 = 400,000$
5 is in the ten thousands place — $5 \times 10,000 = 50,000$
2 is in the thousands place — $2 \times 1,000 = 2,000$

Decimal Place Value works to the right of the decimal point:

First place = tenths $( \frac{1}{10} )$
Second place = hundredths $( \frac{1}{100} )$
Third place = thousandths $( \frac{1}{1000} )$

Example 1: Write

700,324

in words.
Answer: Seven hundred thousand, three hundred and twenty-four.

Example 2: Write "Nine hundred and eighty-two thousand, one hundred and five" in figures.
Answer:

982,105

Example 3: What is the value of 6 in the number

768,241

?
Answer:

6

is in the ten thousands place.
So,

6 \times 10,000 = 60,000

Example 4: What is the place value of 3 in the number

45.378

?
Answer: 3 is in the tenths place.
So, its place value is

\frac{3}{10} = 0.3

Example 5: Convert

0.205

to words.
Answer: Two hundred and five thousandths.

Exercises

Write $789,456$ in words.
Write "Six hundred and twenty-one thousand, eight hundred and eleven" in figures.
What is the value of 5 in $154,879$ ?
What is the place value of 7 in $23.718$ ?
[WAEC] Write in figures: "Four hundred and fifty-two thousand, seventy-six" (Past Question)
[NABTEC] What is the place value of 1 in $13.641$ ? (Past Question)
Write $907,302$ in words.
Convert 0.06 to words.
[WAEC] Which digit is in the thousandths place in $12.058$ ? (Past Question)
[JAMB] What is the value of 2 in $328,001$ ? (Past Question)

Conclusion / Recap

Understanding how to read and write large numbers and decimals is essential in math and everyday life. In this lesson, you've learned how to interpret numbers in words and figures and use place value to determine digit significance. In the next lesson, we will look at Rounding Numbers.