Which digit is in the thousands place when there are zeros?

I’m revising fundamentals and I keep getting confused about place value when zeros are in the middle, like in 407,056: is the thousands place 0 or 7? Am I overthinking this?

3 Responses

  1. You’re not overthinking-start from the right and count ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, so in 407,056 the thousands digit is 7; the zeros just mark empty slots, like empty seats on a bus.

  2. You’re not overthinking it-zeros in the middle can feel distracting. The thousands place is the fourth digit from the right (the 10^3 place). In 407,056, if we count from the right we get ones = 6, tens = 5, hundreds = 0, thousands = 7, ten-thousands = 0, hundred-thousands = 4, so the thousands digit is 7. The zeros are just placeholders: they show there are no hundreds and no ten-thousands, but they don’t shift where the thousands place is. A quick visual check is the comma: the digit immediately to the left of the comma is in the thousands place. Simple example: in 20,304 we have ones = 4, tens = 0, hundreds = 3, thousands = 0, ten-thousands = 2, so there the thousands digit is 0. So for 407,056, the thousands place is 7.

  3. The thousands place is the third digit from the right (the 10^3 place), so in 407,056 it’s 7, since 7×1000 = 7000; the zeros just mean no hundreds and no ten-thousands. Would it help to write a few numbers in expanded form to check this?

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