Question

How is understanding the place value system useful for understanding negative powers of 10?

Answer 1

Numbers to the left of the decimal point are positive powers of 10 (in place value), and numbers to the right are negative powers of 10.

Answer 2

Place value is important because it helps you understand the meaning of a number. If people just used numbers randomly, no one would know which numbers people meant. You need place value to understand the order of numbers as well.