Module 9 · Powers of 10 and scientific notation · Lesson 37 of 39
Scientific notation
Write very big and very small numbers as a × 10ⁿ.
In this lesson · about 12 minutes
- Write a number in scientific notation
- Turn scientific notation back into an ordinary number
A number in scientific notation is a decimal part that is at least 1 and less than 10, times a power of 10: a × 10n.
0.000000000000000000000000782 is hard to read. Move the point right past the first nonzero digit, 7: that's 25 places, so it's 7.82 × 10−25. Big numbers get positive powers: 52,400,000 = 5.24 × 107.
Try it · interactive
Move the decimal point
Type a number and move the point. Only one position gives true scientific notation.
7.82 × 10−4
✓ This is scientific notation: exactly one nonzero digit before the point.
Moving the point one place left makes the decimal part 10 times smaller, so the power of 10 goes up by 1. Moving it right does the opposite.
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