SCIENTIFIC NOTATION

When you have finished this page, try the Scientific Notation Quiz.

Scientists deal with numbers that are very, very big or very, very small in such diverse areas as the study of outer space down to the study of microbes and sub-atomic particles. In order to make numbers easier to deal with, scientific notation was born.

Scientific notation is a shortened form for writing these very big or small numbers. Let's look at some examples. We are all familiar with the approximate distance of the sun from the earth at any given time - ninety-three million miles away. To write this big number in scientific notation:

• Write the first number of this bigger number as a whole number on the left side of the decimal point. In this case the number would be nine.
• Write the number three after the decimal point.
• Count how many numbers, including the zeroes are after the nine. In this case it would be seven.
• The scientific notation for this number is nine point three times ten to the seventh power.

Scientists generally are dealing with rounded off numbers where scientific notation is concerned with the numbers to the right being zeroes, making it easier to write the number in scientific notation.

93,000, 000

The process is very similar for very small numbers. Let's look at an example.

• The decimal is thirty-three billionths. To write the scientific notation, find the first number to the right of the decimal place that is not a zero. Go to one place beyond this number. This is where the decimal point will be in the scientific notation for this number. .
• Count the number of places before the place where the new decimal point will be. In this case there are eight places.
• The scientific notation will be three point three to the negative eighth power.

.000000033