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 73,715,810 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: | 7 | . | 3 | 7 | 1 | 5 | 8 | 1 | 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 = 7.371581 (Please notice any zeroes on the end have been removed)
b = 7
Now the whole thing:
7.371581 x 107
Check your work:
107 = 10,000,000 x 7.371581 = 73,715,810
73,715,808 | 73,715,809 | 73,715,811 | 73,715,812 |
7.3715808 x 107 | 7.3715809 x 107 | 7.3715811 x 107 | 7.3715812 x 107 |