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 21,428,240 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 | . | 1 | 4 | 2 | 8 | 2 | 4 | 0 |
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 = 2.142824 (Please notice any zeroes on the end have been removed)
b = 7
Now the whole thing:
2.142824 x 107
Check your work:
107 = 10,000,000 x 2.142824 = 21,428,240
21,428,238 | 21,428,239 | 21,428,241 | 21,428,242 |
2.1428238 x 107 | 2.1428239 x 107 | 2.1428241 x 107 | 2.1428242 x 107 |