Q: How is the number 84,286,458 written in Scientific Notation?
A: 8.4286458 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 84,286,458 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: | 8 | . | 4 | 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 = 8.4286458
b = 7
Now the whole thing:
8.4286458 x 107
Check your work:
107 = 10,000,000 x 8.4286458 = 84,286,458
| 84,286,456 | 84,286,457 | 84,286,459 | 84,286,460 |
| 8.4286456 x 107 | 8.4286457 x 107 | 8.4286459 x 107 | 8.428646 x 107 |