Standard Form Small Numbers Worksheet GCSE

Write small numbers in standard form by seeing why it works: 0.0062 = 6.2 × 10⁻³ because you multiply by 10 and divide by one more 10, a line at a time. 16 questions, full answers included.

Worksheet (1 page): the first questions write out every step, multiplying by 10 and dividing by one more power of 10 until the number is between 1 and 10, with a reminder that ÷ 10³ is the same as × 10⁻³. The steps fade question by question until students write numbers like 0.0409 and 0.7 straight into standard form, then write the width of a hair in standard form and correct a common error (0.0058 written as 5.8 × 10³).

Further practice (1 page): graded by difficulty, with standard form back to ordinary numbers, finding a missing power, comparing and ordering numbers given in a mix of forms, and contexts such as pollen, a flea, a dust mite and a cell width in millimetres. It finishes with the misconception that a negative power makes a negative number.

Answers to all 16 questions are included as a separate file.

Suitable for GCSE Foundation (AQA N9) and for Key Stage 3 classes working on standard form.

AI was used to help create this resource, working from my own lesson design.