Q: How is the number 20,154,809 written in Scientific Notation?
A: 2.0154809 x 107
The purpose of scientific notation is for scientists to write very large, or very small, numbers with ease.
Calculating scientific notation for a positive integer is simple, as it always follows this notation:
a x 10b
Follow the steps below to see how 20,154,809 is written in scientific notation.
To find a, take the number and move a decimal place to the right one position.
Now, to find b, count how many places to the right of the decimal.
| New Number: | 2 | . | 0 | 1 | 5 | 4 | 8 | 0 | 9 |
| Decimal Count: | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
There are 7 places to the right of the decimal place.
Building upon what we know above, we can now reconstruct the number into scientific notation.
Remember, the notation is: a x 10b
a = 2.0154809
b = 7
Now the whole thing:
2.0154809 x 107
Check your work:
107 = 10,000,000 x 2.0154809 = 20,154,809
| 20,154,807 | 20,154,808 | 20,154,810 | 20,154,811 |
| 2.0154807 x 107 | 2.0154808 x 107 | 2.015481 x 107 | 2.0154811 x 107 |