SCIENTIFIC NOTATION
CAN YOU IMAGINE?
• Comes from the term Googol
• Edward Kasner’s nephew
• Googol is actually a number
• 1 followed by 100 zeros
• Larger than the total number of atoms in the known
universe
• How much does the earth weigh?
• About 6 quadrillion kg
• 6 followed by 15 zeros
• NEED A SHORTCUT!!
SCIENTIFIC NOTATION
• Scientific notation is a way of expressing
really big numbers or really small numbers.
• It is most often used in “scientific”
calculations where the analysis must be very
precise.
• Benefits:
• More concise form
• Used in a computation with far greater
ease
CORRECT FORM
• Scientific notation consists of two parts:
• A number between 1 and 10
• A power of 10
• Positive/Negative
N x 10x
*Helpful tip: If the original number was less
than 1, then the exponent is negative. If the
original number was greater than 1, then
the exponent is positive.
STANDARD FORM TO SCIENTIFIC
NOTATION
• 289,800,000
• 0.000567
• 5,093,000
• 0.0001976
SCIENTIFIC NOTATION TO STANDARD
• 4.9 x 103
• 7.15 x 108
• -4.68 x 10-5
• 4.19 x 10-3
WORD PROBLEMS
• We have to find out the weight of 6 billion
dust particles, if a dust particle has a mass of
7.53 x 10-10 g
(6 x 109) (7.53 x 10-10) = 45.18 x 10-1 = 4.518 g