scientific notation

Scientific Notation is a way to abbreviate very large or very small numbers. The format of Scientific Notation is this: a number that has a decimal after the first digit, mulitiplied by ten with an exponent. An example is: 1.23 X 10⁴. The exponent can be positive or negative. If the exponent is positive then you move the decimal to the right by the number of the exponent. If the exponent is negative then you move the decimal to the left by the number of the exponent. This form of numbers can express very large and small numbers depending on the exponent. More examples are as follows.

Scientific Notation	Regular Form

1.23 X 10⁴	12300
4.91 X 10³	4910
2.1 X 10^-3	.0021

examples of scientific notation

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