Title: A Review of Scientific Notation
Course: BTEC-1100-301-302-303-F21 > Section: Module 1 - Calculations and Measurements

Scientific notation allows us to easily handle very large numbers or very small numbers. For example, instead of writing 0.0000000078, we write 7.8 x 10-9. So, how does this work? We can think of 7.8 x 10-9 as the product of two numbers: 7.8 (the digit term) and 10-9 (the exponential term).  Here are some more examples of scientific notation.

10000 = 1 x 104 | 24327 = 2.4327 x 104
1000 = 1 x 103 | 7354 = 7.354 x 103
100 = 1 x 102 | 482 = 4.82 x 102
10 = 1 x 101 | 89 = 8.9 x 101 (not usually done)
1 = 100 | 4.5 = 4.5 x 100 (not usually done)
1/10 = 0.1 = 1 x 10-1 | 0.32 = 3.2 x 10-1 (not usually done)
1/100 = 0.01 = 1 x 10-2 | 0.053 = 5.3 x 10-2
1/1000 = 0.001 = 1 x 10-3 | 0.0078 = 7.8 x 10-3
1/10000 = 0.0001 = 1 x 10-4 | 0.00044 = 4.4 x 10-4

Remember:  A positive exponent means a big number.  A negative exponent means a small number.