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 42,412,540 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 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 0 |
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 = 4.241254 (Please notice any zeroes on the end have been removed)
b = 7
Now the whole thing:
4.241254 x 107
Check your work:
107 = 10,000,000 x 4.241254 = 42,412,540
42,412,538 | 42,412,539 | 42,412,541 | 42,412,542 |
4.2412538 x 107 | 4.2412539 x 107 | 4.2412541 x 107 | 4.2412542 x 107 |