106 … And all that

In aviation safety circles conversation is liberally sprinkled with the magic words “Ten to the Sixth”. At the risk of insulting the intelligence of the majority of the readers, let me interpret. “Ten to the Sixth”, which is written 106, is simply shorthand for ten multiplied by itself six times, in other words one million. 105 or 107 or 108 or whatever all follow the same rule. Ten to the minus seven, written 10−7, is one divided by ten million, and so forth, solely to avoid writing innumerable zeros.