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 204,224,410 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 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 0 |
Decimal Count: | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
There are 8 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 = 2.0422441 (Please notice any zeroes on the end have been removed)
b = 8
Now the whole thing:
2.0422441 x 108
Check your work:
108 = 100,000,000 x 2.0422441 = 204,224,410
204,224,408 | 204,224,409 | 204,224,411 | 204,224,412 |
2.04224408 x 108 | 2.04224409 x 108 | 2.04224411 x 108 | 2.04224412 x 108 |