What is science notation?

Question

Wyatt Atkins · Accepted Answer

#"Scientific notation"# is the use of exponents, typically as powers of 10.

Suppose we made a measurement of #0.000560#,,,there are THREE significant figures but writing the number down as is INVITES error. Alternatively we could use powers of 10... #0.000560-=5.60xx10^-4#...to give a number that is a bit more accessible in scientific notation. If you have doubts, plug the numbers into your calculator, and then use them...the calculator will convert them.

Mateo Aguilar · Answer

undefined Scientific notation is a way of expressing numbers that are very large or very small in a concise format. It involves writing a number as the product of a coefficient and a power of 10. For example, the number 3,000,000 can be written in scientific notation as 3 × 10^6, and the number 0.00025 can be written as 2.5 × 10^-4. This notation is useful in fields like mathematics, physics, chemistry, and engineering where dealing with extremely large or small numbers is common.