Scientific Notation

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

a*10b where 1 <= |a| < 10 is a decimal number and b is an integer (negative or positive).

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

To convert a number to scientific notation:

• If the number has no decimal point, then add one at the end.

• Then move the decimal point to just after the first digit while counting the number of places you have moved it.

• The mantissa of the new number, formed after moving the decimal point is a.

• If the original number is negative, then so is a.

• The number of places to the left that the decimal point was moved is b. If it was moved to the right, then b is negative.

For example:

23045.06 becomes 2.304506*10^4

-23045.06 becomes -2.304506*10^4

0.00023004 becomes 2.3004*10^-4

The following are the better known metric prefices:

yotta- = septillion

zetta- = sextillion

exa- = quintillion

peta- = quadrillion

tera- = trillion

giga- = billion

mega- = million

kilo- = thousand

hecto- = hundred

deca- = ten

unit = unit

deci- = tenth

centi- = hundredth

milli- = thousandth

micro- = millionth

nano- = billionth

pico- = trillionth

femto- = quadrillionth

atto- = quintillionth

zepto- = sextillionth

yocto- = septillionth