Scientific Notation

Why Use Scientific Notation?

Scientific Notation is used to express really large or small numbers. 

For example, there are 602, 200, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000 atoms in one mole of a substance.  This number, also called Avogadro's number (N_A), would extremely large to work with and type into a calculator.  Since this number is extremely large, it is expressed in scientific notation as 6.022 x 10²³. 

The actual mass of an electron is 0.000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 911 grams.  Since this number is so small, it is expressed as 9.11 x 10^-28 grams in scientific notation.

What is the form for scientific notation?

Scientific notation is expressed as M x 10ⁿ, where:

M must be greater than or equal to 1 and less than 10

n is an integer (a positive or negative whole number or 0)

Determine what is wrong with the following scientific notation:

51.4 x 103	CLICK HERE FOR ANSWERS
1.23 x 10-2/3
0.004 x 10-1