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 63,854,650 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 | 5 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 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 = 6.385465 (Please notice any zeroes on the end have been removed)
b = 7
Now the whole thing:
6.385465 x 107
Check your work:
107 = 10,000,000 x 6.385465 = 63,854,650
63,854,648 | 63,854,649 | 63,854,651 | 63,854,652 |
6.3854648 x 107 | 6.3854649 x 107 | 6.3854651 x 107 | 6.3854652 x 107 |