Make the Largest and Smallest Number from Five Digits

In this activity, we will be making the largest and smallest number from five digits.

Example

Make the largest and smallest number from the digits:

7 , 3 , 4 , 4 , 1

Answer

For the largest number, begin with the largest number and put the numbers in decreasing order:

74,431

For the smallest number, begin with the smallest number and put the numbers in increasing order:

13,447

Seems obvious really, doesn't it?!

Did you spot that we had added commas to the two big numbers we had created? We can add a comma or leave a space between the thousands and the hundreds columns and then again after every three digits. This makes it easier to read large numbers, so it is a useful skill to practise. 

Let's give it a go in the following questions.