Order of Magnitudes

The approximate size of something, especially measured in powers of 10: the order of magnitude of the deficit was as expected; their estimates differ by an order of magnitude.

How it works in Space Colony: Idle?
Colony Value is measured in orders of magnitude.

This allows for easier comparison, because 1036 and 1042 are easier to compare than 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 and 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.

With Orders of Magnitude, you don't have to painstakingly count the zeroes; you can use exponent rules to calculate 1042 divided by 1036 as 1042-36, which simplifies to 106, meaning colony value is 1 million times the other.