Scientific Notation

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Scientific Notation

• By Jenny Erickson

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What is scientific Notation?

• Scientific notation is a way of expressing really
  big numbers or really small numbers.
• It is most often used in scientific
  calculations where the analysis must be very
  precise.

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Why use scientific notation?

• For very large and very small numbers, these
  numbers can be converted into scientific notation
  to express them in a more concise form.
• Numbers expressed in scientific notation can be
  used in a computation with far greater ease.

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Scientific notation consists of two parts

• A number between 1 and 10
• A power of 10
• N x 10x
• Are the following in scientific notation?

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Changing standard form to scientific notation.
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To change standard form to scientific notation

• Place the decimal point so that there is one
  non-zero digit to the left of the decimal point.
• Count the number of decimal places the decimal
  point has moved from the original number. This
  will be the exponent on the 10.

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Continued

• If the original number was less than 1, then the
  exponent is negative. If the original number was
  greater than 1, then the exponent is positive.

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Example 1

• Given 289,800,000
• Use 2.898 (moved 8 places)
• Answer 2.898 x 108

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Example 2

• Given 0.000567
• Use 5.67 (moved 4 places)
• Answer 5.67 x 10-4

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Practice

• Use the link below to practice converting
  standard form to scientific notation.
• Converting to Scientific Notation

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Changing scientific notation to standard form.
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To change scientific notation to standard form

• Simply move the decimal point to the right for
  positive exponent 10.
• Move the decimal point to the left for negative
  exponent 10.
• (Use zeros to fill in places.)

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Example 3

• Given 5.093 x 106
• Answer 5,093,000 (moved 6 places to the right)

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Example 4

• Given 1.976 x 10-4
• Answer 0.0001976 (moved 4 places to the left)

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Practice

• Use the link below to practice converting
  scientific notation to standard form.
• Converting to Standard Form

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Even More Practice

• Below is a list of links to games and activities
  all having to do with scientific notation.
• http//www.aaamath.com/dec71i-dec2sci.html
• http//janus.astro.umd.edu/cgi-bin/astro/scinote.p
  l
• http//www.sciencejoywagon.com/physicszone/lesson/
  00genral/dectosci.htm

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Now take the quiz to test your scientific
notation skills!

• Click on the link below to take the quiz and then
  use the answer key for the correct answers.
• Quiz
• Answers