Lesson WHAT IS scientific notation

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Science often deals with numbers that are very large or very small.

For example, the Earth contains approximately 900000000000000000000000 atoms.

Such large numbers, written as I just did, are difficult to read and compare by humans. (They do not present any difficulties for a computer, however).

To make them more readable, people invented scientific notation. It is a way of writing down numbers.

Scientific notation form


Scientific notation is written as a decimal number between 1 and 10, followd by a power of 10.
Example:

1. 12800+=+1.28+%2A+10%5E4

2. What is greater, 4800234000000 or 72229000000000? It is hard to say until you counted the digits. If you look at scientific notation of these numbers, you will see 4.800234%2A10%5E12 and 7.2229%2A10%5E13. The second number is more that 10 TIMES the first one. So, it makes sense to use these numbers in books and computer printouts.
3. is 0.00000001 less than 1/1000000? It is easier to compare 1%2A10%5E%28-8%29 vs. 1%2F10%5E7.

Multiplication and division of numbers in scientific notation


Multiplying and dividing numbers in scientific notation is an exercise from thye chapter on "powers of 10".
Multiplying:Multiply the small parts separately and the exponents separately, and write them together.
For example, .
Dividing:Multiply the small parts separately and the exponents separately, and write them together.
For example, .
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