Scientific notation

Scientific notation is a very useful system of writing figures that are extremely large or extremely small. Scientific notation uses exponents to express figures.

For example,

• 1,000,000 can be written as 1 x 10⁶.

 This is ten raised to the power of six 

Similarly,

• 0.000001 can be written as 1 x 10^-6

This is ten raised to the power of negative six 

Suppose we have a measurement of 6765.44 g and we wish to express this measurement in scientific notation. We simply move the decimal over to the LEFT until there is one digit (from 1 to 9) to the left of the decimal point. Here, we move the decimal place three places to the left. Therefore, in scientific notation,

6765.44 g = 6.76544 x 10³ g.

Suppose we have a measurement of 0.000004334 cm and we wish to express this measurement in scientific notation. We simply move the decimal over to the RIGHT until there is one digit (from 1 to 9) to the left of the decimal point. Here, we move the decimal place six places to the right. Therefore, in scientific notation,

0.000004334 cm = 4.334 x 10^-6 cm.

External link

Do you understand the powers of ten? This site as it takes you from: 10²³ meters 10^-16 meters. From 10 millions light years away from the Milky Way to examining quarks.

Secret Worlds: The Universe Within

Content suitability

BCIT courses: CHEM 0011