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Scientific notation is having the form x.xxxxx * 10^x power. To put 32392.55 in this form, you need to move the decimal to the left by 4 places. Each time you move the decimal to the left, are dividing the whole number by 10. To make up for this, you multiply the whole number by 10 to the side.

All of these numbers are equivalent:

34392.55

3439.255 * 10

343.9255 * 10 * 10

34.39255 * 10 * 10 * 10

3.439255 * 10 * 10 * 10 * 10

Now that you have the number in the correct form, where only the digit 1-9 is to the left of the decimal, you combine all the powers of 10 and that's your final answer.

3.439255 * 10^4

If we multiply the 10s back into the number, we end up shifting the decimal four places to the right: 34392.55, which is what our original number was. So we haven't changed anything at all, just how the number is displayed.

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16y ago

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