It is the place value of the first non-zero digit in the number.
Chat with our AI personalities
Order of magnitude
Those numbers are orders of magnitude on the Richter scale. The Richter magnitude scale was developed in 1935 by Charles F. Richter of the California Institute of Technology as a mathematical device to compare the size of earthquakes.
No, it does not. The Benford Law requires the numbers to span several orders of magnitude, Erdos numbers have a very small range.
The first 9 is in the Millions place, the second is in the Hundreds. The difference is 4 orders of magnitude.
A reasonable estimate will give an indication of the order of magnitude of the number. The order of magnitude is determined by the decimal point and so knowing the order can help in placing it.