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 313,162,000 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: | 3 | . | 1 | 3 | 1 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 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 = 3.13162 (Please notice any zeroes on the end have been removed)
b = 8
Now the whole thing:
3.13162 x 108
Check your work:
108 = 100,000,000 x 3.13162 = 313,162,000
313,161,998 | 313,161,999 | 313,162,001 | 313,162,002 |
3.13161998 x 108 | 3.13161999 x 108 | 3.13162001 x 108 | 3.13162002 x 108 |