Scientific Notation

Scientific Notation or Standard Form 

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Fun Fact!

Did you know?

1. The mass of one molecule of water (H₂O) = 0.0000000000000000000000000299 kg
2. There are roughly 7,500,000,000,000,000,000 grains of sand on earth 

Imagine doing calculations with or reciting both numbers...

It would take forever!

We can reduce the complexity of these numbers by placing them in Scientific Notation.

How is this done?

Consider this decimal number,

0.00058

We are able to put this number into scientific notation by doing the following: 

1. Identify the position of the decimal point in the number.
   ⇒ The decimal point is after the first zero (0).
2. Identify the first significant digit in the number.
   ⇒ The first significant digit in the number is five (5).
3. Shift (jump) the decimal point from its current position to behind the first significant digit in the number.



4. Count the number of jumps in shifting the decimal point from its original position to behind the first significant digit.

5. The number jumps tells us how many times we need to multiply ten (10) to our number. The leading zeros were discarded because they are not significant.



6. We now need to determine the sign of the power of ten (10). The direction of the jumps determine the sign of the power. A jump to the left, means a positive power of ten and a jump to the right, means a negative power of ten.

7. We now have our number in Scientific Notation.

Example 1:

Important Note: We can also, place numbers into Scientific Notation and to the accuracy of specific Significant Figures.

Example 2:

Empowerment Through Practice!

Test your knowledge and Attempt Quiz 2