Q: How is the number 42,394,978 written in Scientific Notation?
A: 4.2394978 x 107
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 42,394,978 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: | 4 | . | 2 | 3 | 9 | 4 | 9 | 7 | 8 |
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 = 4.2394978
b = 7
Now the whole thing:
4.2394978 x 107
Check your work:
107 = 10,000,000 x 4.2394978 = 42,394,978
42,394,976 | 42,394,977 | 42,394,979 | 42,394,980 |
4.2394976 x 107 | 4.2394977 x 107 | 4.2394979 x 107 | 4.239498 x 107 |