Shorthand in writing extremely large or small numbers, in the form of

N=m x 10b

Scientific notation has a number of useful properties and is commonly used in calculators and by scientists, mathematicians and engineers.

Scientific Notation

Standard decimal notation Normalized scientific notation

2 2×100

300 3×102

4,321.768 4.321768×103

-53,000 −5.3×104

6,720,000,000 6.72×109

0.24 2.4 ×10−1

0.000 000 007 51 7.51×10−9

Express the following in scientific notation:

1) 0.00385 m2) 0.2 cm3) 256,000,000 ft4) 300,000,000 m/s5) 84 mi

6) 0.00000000012 cm7.) 6785 liters8) 0.2 hr9) 40 Megawatts10) 12 Kilo ohms

1. 6.8 x 10 -5 mA2. 4.5 x 10 -1 cm3.4.7 x 10 6 kg4.29.72 x 10 -2 sec5.1.205 x 10 3 mi

Express the following in ordinary notation

1. The earth weighs 6,590,000,000,000,000,000,000 tons.

2. The Yangtze River carries 1,800,000,000 tons of soil each year, enough to encircle the globe 27 times with an earthen bank over 3 feet high and 3 feet thick.

Express the following in scientific notation:

3. The period of visible light is 1.0 x 10 -15 second.4. Some of the carbon in the carbon

dioxide you breathed in today may once have been part of a dinosaur 1.0 x 10 8 years ago.

Express the following in ordinary notation:

5. The density of air is 1.3 x 10 -4 g/cm3 as compared to

the density of water which is 1 g/cm3.

Express the following in ordinary notation: