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 514,703,470 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 | 4 | 7 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 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 = 5.1470347 (Please notice any zeroes on the end have been removed)
b = 8
Now the whole thing:
5.1470347 x 108
Check your work:
108 = 100,000,000 x 5.1470347 = 514,703,470
514,703,468 | 514,703,469 | 514,703,471 | 514,703,472 |
5.14703468 x 108 | 5.14703469 x 108 | 5.14703471 x 108 | 5.14703472 x 108 |