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 251,420,340 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 | . | 5 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 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 = 2.5142034 (Please notice any zeroes on the end have been removed)
b = 8
Now the whole thing:
2.5142034 x 108
Check your work:
108 = 100,000,000 x 2.5142034 = 251,420,340
251,420,338 | 251,420,339 | 251,420,341 | 251,420,342 |
2.51420338 x 108 | 2.51420339 x 108 | 2.51420341 x 108 | 2.51420342 x 108 |