3. Place Value and Face Value

Face Value of a digit is the digit itself, regardless of its position.

Place Value of a digit is the digit multiplied by the value of the position it occupies (units = 10⁰, tens = 10¹, hundreds = 10², thousands = 10³, and so on).

Why it works: Our number system is a base-10 (decimal) positional system — each position to the left is worth 10 times the position to its right. This is exactly why 526 means 5×100 + 2×10 + 6×1, not simply “5, 2, 6 written together.”