September 3, 2009
No CommentsHow to Use Scientific Notation
Description
This video explains each part of scientific notation and lays it out in an easy to read format. It explains the basic concept of exponents and what multiplication by 10 does to a number, then moves onto how to solve scientific notation and how to convert regular numbers into scientific notation. Many examples are provided.
Overview
Scientific notation is a shorthand for very big and very small numbers. It consists of a number multiplied by 10 to the nth power. This power is very often a small, positive number. You use scientific notation by moving the decimal over n number of spaces and filling in any empty spaces with the number zero. To convert a number into scientific notation, move the decimal point until you create a number that is less than 10 but bigger than 0. An easier way to remember it is leave only one number before your decimal point. The number of decimal points you moved over is the number you put as the exponent. An example is 2.468 * 10^8. Move the decimal point over 6 spaces. Your number is 246800000. Now take the number 4928400000. To convert this to scientific notation, we want to create the number 4.9284. We moved the decimal point 9 spaces to get that number, so in scientific notation it is 4.9284 * 10^9.
