When the term 'powers of 10' is used in a sentence, does it include zero and/or negative powers of 10?
That is, does the term 'powers of 10' mean these
10 100 1000 10000 ...
or these
... 0.0001 0.001 0.01 0.1 1 10 100 1000 ...
or these
1 10 100 1000 10000 ...
or is it ambiguous/dependent on context?
Note: I want to use it in a sentence and I do wish to include zero and negative powers of ten, so I want to know if I need to specifically mention that, or if simply 'Powers of 10' is sufficient.
In a discrete context, such as combinatorics where such powers may arise in the solutions of recurrence relations, the powers of ten usually start from $10^0=1$. The set including negative powers would be said as "numbers of the form $10^k$ where $k$ is an integer" or similar.
In a continuous context, such as numerical analysis (how many steps of an algorithm must be performed to get below a desired error, how many correct digits does each step add, etc.), powers of ten are infinite on both ends, so $10^{-7}$ is a power of ten. This is also standard usage in the other sciences and famously in the Eames film Powers of Ten.