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 387,155,870 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 | . | 8 | 7 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 8 | 7 | 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 = 3.8715587 (Please notice any zeroes on the end have been removed)
b = 8
Now the whole thing:
3.8715587 x 108
Check your work:
108 = 100,000,000 x 3.8715587 = 387,155,870
387,155,868 | 387,155,869 | 387,155,871 | 387,155,872 |
3.87155868 x 108 | 3.87155869 x 108 | 3.87155871 x 108 | 3.87155872 x 108 |