Scientific Notation By Jenny Erickson What is scientific

Scientific Notation By Jenny Erickson

What is scientific Notation? n Scientific notation is a way of expressing really big numbers or really small numbers. n It is most often used in “scientific” calculations where the analysis must be very precise.

Why use scientific notation? n For very large and very small numbers, these numbers can be converted into scientific notation to express them in a more concise form. n Numbers expressed in scientific notation can be used in a computation with far greater ease.

Scientific notation consists of two parts: n A number between 1 and 10 n A power of 10 N x 10 x Are the following in scientific notation?

Changing standard form to scientific notation.

To change standard form to scientific notation… n Place the decimal point so that there is one non-zero digit to the left of the decimal point. n Count the number of decimal places the decimal point has “moved” from the original number. This will be the exponent on the 10.

Continued… n 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.

Example 1 n Given: 289, 800, 000 n Use: 2. 898 (moved 8 places) n Answer: 2. 898 x 108

Example 2 n Given: 0. 000567 n Use: 5. 67 (moved 4 places) n Answer: 5. 67 x 10 -4

Practice n Use the link below to practice converting standard form to scientific notation. – Converting to Scientific Notation

Changing scientific notation to standard form.

To change scientific notation to standard form… n Simply move the decimal point to the right for positive exponent 10. n Move the decimal point to the left for negative exponent 10. (Use zeros to fill in places. )

Example 3 n Given: 5. 093 x 106 n Answer: 5, 093, 000 (moved 6 places to the right)

Example 4 n Given: 1. 976 x 10 -4 n Answer: 0. 0001976 (moved 4 places to the left)

Practice n Use the link below to practice converting scientific notation to standard form. – Converting to Standard Form

Even More Practice n Below is a list of links to games and activities all having to do with scientific notation. – http: //www. aaamath. com/dec 71 idec 2 sci. html – http: //janus. astro. umd. edu/cgibin/astro/scinote. pl – http: //www. sciencejoywagon. com/physicsz one/lesson/00 genral/dectosci. htm

Now take the quiz to test your scientific notation skills! n Click on the link below to take the quiz and then use the answer key for the correct answers. – Quiz – Answers