Scientific notation is a technique to condense and simplify the writing and viewing of very large or very small numbers. The overall format is presented beginning with a single whole number, followed by all other numbers after the decimal, multiplied by a base of 10 at a specific exponent.
Here are examples of numbers written in scientific notation:
- 5,234 = 5.234 x 103 (decimal moved to the left 3 spaces)
- 32 = 3.2 x 101 (decimal moved to the left 1 space)
- 0.0321 = 3.21 x 10-2 (decimal moved to the right 2 spaces)
- 876.02 = 8.7602 x 102 (decimal moved to the left 2 spaces)
Note: The original number and the scientific notation have the same number of significant figures and there is always one number to the left of the decimal point. Significant figures will be discussed later in the course.
