Scientific Notation Tutorial

Science often deals with large numbers.

The number of hydrogen atoms in a liter of water is almost

70,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

•To write out such large numbers every time you use them would be a lot of trouble.

•Performing calculations on these numbers would be confusing.

Scientific NotationTo deal with these large numbers, scientist

use scientific notation.All numbers are expressed as two numbers

multiplied together.The first number is between 1 and 10 and the

second is a power of 10.200 is written: 2.0 x 102

Scientific Notation Examples450,000,000

Step 1 move the decimal point to the left until the number to the left of the decimal point is between 1 and 10.

4.50000000

Scientific Notation ExamplesDetermine the size of the exponent. The exponent

is equal to the number of places you moved the decimal point.4.50000000 8 places

Step 3: Determine the sign of the exponent. If you move the decimal to the left the sign is positive.

4.5 x 108

Try these on your paper:1. 634,0002. 5333. 1,900,0004. 87,000

Very Small Numbers.000062

Step 1: Move the decimal point to the right until the number to the left of the decimal point is between 1 and 10

00006.2

Very Small NumbersStep 2: Determine the exponent by counting

the number of places you moved the decimal.

00006.2 is equal to 5 places

Step 3 Determine the sign of the exponent. If you move the decimal to the right, the exponent will be negative:

6.2 x 10-5

Try these on your paper:5. .0000536. .004217. .0000000888. .012