Scientific Notation

Sometimes it’s more convenient towrite very large numbers or verysmall numbers in scientific notationrather than in normal notation

Scientific NotationNormal Notation Scientific Notation300,000,000 3 x 108

4,000 4 x 103

5,720,000,000 5.72 x 109

0.0000000061 6.1 x 10-9

0.004523 4.523 x 10-3

Scientific Notation Count the number of places the decimal has

to be moved to have the number bebetween 1 and 10. This count becomes yourexponent

Numbers that start larger than 1 havepositive exponents

Numbers that start smaller than 1 havenegative exponents

Scientific Notation Example Write the following numbers in scientific notation

203850000493003340.034830.49370.0000648

Scientific Notation Example Write the following numbers in normal notation

2.394 x 10-3

3.43 x 1012

9.493 x 103

1.4 x 10-6

-4.8 x 108

8.3 x 10-4