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Learn what scientific notation is and how it simplifies writing and interpreting very large or small numbers in decimal form. Discover the rules for converting numbers to scientific notation and how to move the decimal point based on the exponent.
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What is the scientific notation? • In science, we often deal with very large or very small numbers, scientific notation is a way to write these numbers easily in decimal form • Often times, this means getting rid of all the zeros in the number, but not always!
Decimal: you should only have one number in front of the decimal point Exponent: this expresses how many zeros are in the number and can only be in whole numbers How does the scientific notation work? • There are always two parts of the scientific notation • 3.5 x 108
3.5 x 108 The exponent is positive 8, which means you move the decimal point 8 places to the right In all the empty places you add zeros, so it becomes 350,000,000 3.5 x 10-8 The exponent is negative 8, which means you move the decimal point 8 places to the left In all the empty places you add zeros, so it becomes 0.000000035 What does the scientific notation mean? The decimal number is your starting point. You know how many places and which way to move the decimal point depending on the exponent.
