Scientific Notation
As if significant figures weren’t punishment enough, students must be aware of when to use scientific notation. Think of scientific notation as an abbreviation, just like m stands for meters and km stands for kilometers. Knowing how to abbreviate a number into scientific notation is only part of the challenge. Just as with significant figures, you must also know when to apply rules.
Let’s start with a few examples. Try to figure out the relationship between the number of zeros to the right of the decimal point and the superscript on the 10.
0.0025 g in scientific notation is 2.5 x 10-3
0.00025 g in scientific notation is 2.5 x 10-4
0.000025 g in scientific notation is 2.5 x 10-5
0.0000025 g in scientific notation is 2.5 x 10-6
0.00000025 g in scientific notation is 2.5 x 10-7
250,000,000 g in scientific notation is 2.5 x 107
25,000,000 g in scientific notation is 2.5 x 106
2,500,000 g in scientific notation is 2.5 x 105
250,000 g in scientific notation is 2.5 x 104
25,000 g in scientific notation is 2.5 x 103
The exponent on the 10 indicates the direction and number of spaces of movementA fundamental property of life involving motion of the body or its parts. of the decimal point.
If the exponent is negative, you must move the decimal point in the scientific notation to the left to obtain the original number. If the exponent is positive, you must move the decimal point in the scientific notation to the right to obtain the original number.
It is very very easy to get confused with scientific notation and move the decimal point the wrong way for the superscript.
List of terms
- movement