What is Scientific Notation

What is Scientific Notation - Transcript

Scientific Notation
Lesson 9 lab

What is scientific notation
It is a method that scientists use to express very large and very small numbers We use exponents with a base of 10 to express place value

Remember

100 10 3 1 000 10 4 10 000 10 7 10 000 000 10 11 100 000 000 000 10

2

Strategy for Large Numbers
Place a decimal point after the first digit The nonzero part of the expression will be called the coefficient The coefficient will always be between 1 and 10 Count the number of spaces it takes to get to the end of the number That number of spaces will be the exponent for the base of 10

Example Write 93 000 000 in scientific notation 9 3 is the
coefficient

9 3 0 0 0 0 0 0
It takes 7 spaces to get to the end

9 3 x 10

7

Strategy for Small Numbers
Place the decimal point after the first nonzero digit The nonzero part will be the coefficient Count the spaces between your new decimal point and the original one The number of spaces you moved back will be your negative exponent

Example Write 0 0000023 in scientific notation

0 0 0 0 0 0 2 3
There are 6 spaces between the new decimal point and the old one

2 3 is the coefficient

2 3 x 10

6

The negative exponent shows us that we are going left on the number line

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