Scientific notation is used to express very large or small numbers rather than having to write out all those zeros. That way we only have to worry about numbers between 1 and 10.


  • The number 123,000,000 can be expressed in different ways:

1.23\times 10^8

1.23\times e^8

1.23e+8


  • Multiplying by 10:

1.23\times 10^8 = 1.23\times 10\times 10\times 10\times 10\times 10\times 10\times 10\times 10\times = 123,000,000


  • Dividing by 10:

1.23^{-8} = 1.23/10^{-8} = 1.23/100000000 = 0.0000000123


Number Scientific

Notation

1 1.0\times 10^0
10 1.0\times 10^1
100 1.0\times 10^2
1,000 1.0\times 10^3
10,000 1.0\times 10^4
0.1 1.0\times 10^{-1}
0.01 1.0\times 10^{-2}
0.001 1.0\times 10^{-3}
0.0001 1.0\times 10^{-4}
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