Q: How is the number 51,286,458 written in Scientific Notation?
A: 5.1286458 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 51,286,458 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: | 5 | . | 1 | 2 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 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 = 5.1286458
b = 7
Now the whole thing:
5.1286458 x 107
Check your work:
107 = 10,000,000 x 5.1286458 = 51,286,458
| 51,286,456 | 51,286,457 | 51,286,459 | 51,286,460 |
| 5.1286456 x 107 | 5.1286457 x 107 | 5.1286459 x 107 | 5.128646 x 107 |