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 638,385,680 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: | 6 | . | 3 | 8 | 3 | 8 | 5 | 6 | 8 | 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 = 6.3838568 (Please notice any zeroes on the end have been removed)
b = 8
Now the whole thing:
6.3838568 x 108
Check your work:
108 = 100,000,000 x 6.3838568 = 638,385,680
638,385,678 | 638,385,679 | 638,385,681 | 638,385,682 |
6.38385678 x 108 | 6.38385679 x 108 | 6.38385681 x 108 | 6.38385682 x 108 |