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 251,752,510 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 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 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 = 2.5175251 (Please notice any zeroes on the end have been removed)
b = 8
Now the whole thing:
2.5175251 x 108
Check your work:
108 = 100,000,000 x 2.5175251 = 251,752,510
251,752,508 | 251,752,509 | 251,752,511 | 251,752,512 |
2.51752508 x 108 | 2.51752509 x 108 | 2.51752511 x 108 | 2.51752512 x 108 |