What do you mean by scientific notation?

Answer 1

Scientific notation is a way of representing numbers, usually very large or very small, in the form

a*10b where 1 ≤a < 10 and b is an integer.

a is called the mantissa and b is called the exponent.

To convert a number to scientific notation,

Step 1: Move the decimal point to just after the first non-zero digit.

Step 2: Count the number of positions that the decimal point was moved. The number of positions moved is the absolute value of b. If it was moved to the right (a 5-letter word) then the exponent is -b (minus is also a 5-letter word). If the decimal point was moved to the left (a 4-letter word), then the exponent is +b (plus is also a 4-letter word).

Step 3: Get rid of any 0s before the first non-zero digit and after the last non-zero digit in a.

For example:

0.0003405 become 3.405*10-4 (the decimal point was moved 4 places to the right).

345000 becomes 3.45*105 (the decimal point was moved 5 places to the left)