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Question 85482: I'm confused about Negative exponents & Scientific Notation. My book shows a positive exponent moving the decimal point to the right but the arrows are pointing left and it says the negative exponent moves the decimal point left however, it shows the arrow moving right.
Example: 120,000. = 1.2 x 10(the power is 5.)Then under the 120,000 the arrows
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(5 places)
are moving to the left. Can you help me understand this please?
Answer by stanbon(75887)   (Show Source):
You can put this solution on YOUR website! 120,000. = 1.2 x 10(the power is 5)
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You have to remember two rules because there are two operations.
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One operation is standard notation to scientific notation.
Start with 120,000
Write 1.2 x 10^?
To find ? count the number of places you would have to move to
the right to create 120,000 when you start at 1.2.
The answer is 5 to the right
That is ?
Final answer: 1.2 x 10^5
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Another example:
Start with 0.000235
Write 2.35 x 10^?
To find ? count the number of places you would have to move to
the left to create 0.000235
The answer is 4 to the left.
That is ?
Final answer: 2.35 x 10^-4
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2nd procedure: scientific to standard notation.
Example
Start with 1.2453 x 10^3
The power of 10 is +3
Move the decimal point three places to the right
to get Final answer of 1245.3
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Another example
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Start with -0.0345 X 10^(-5)
The power of 10 is -5
Move the decimal point 5 places to the left
to get Final answer of -0.000000345
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Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Stan H.
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