One way to deal with the wide range of numbers is to compress the linear pressure scale using a logarithmic scale. Any number may be written as a power of ten. The previously shown range of sound pressures is shown here with the numbers expressed in powers of ten. Beginning with twenty micro Pascal, which can be written as two times ten to the power of one, we can go up to two hundred million micro Pascal, or two times ten to the power of eight. By expressing values in powers of ten, we shall see shortly that we can take advantage of common logarithms to compress sound pressures into a more convenient form.