Scientific Notation.

Scientific Notation. Scientific Notation, shorthand way to write very large or very small numbers. As its name suggests, scientific notation is commonly used by scientists, who often deal with numbers so large or so small that it would be inconvenient to write out the numbers and difficult to read them once written. Scientific notation is written as a number between 1 and 10 multiplied by a specific power of 10. A power of 10 is 10 multiplied by itself a certain number of times. For example, 10 × 10 × 10 is 10 to the third power, or 103. The number 3 in this notation is an exponent and indicates the number of times 10 should be multiplied by itself. Writing numbers in scientific notation allows scientists to leave out a number of zeros while still retaining some indication that the zeros exist. The number 71,000, for example, is the same as 7.1 multiplied by 10,000 (104) and is written 7.1 × 104 in scientific notation. Numbers smaller than 1 have negative exponents in scientific notation. The number 0.00523, for instance, is the same as 5.23 times 0.001 (10-3) and is written 5.23 × 10-3. 10-3 means 1 divided by (10 × 10 × 10). Scientific notation is especially useful in writing or reading extremely large or small numbers. The weight of a single atom of hydrogen, for example, is about 1.7 × 10-24 or 0.0000000000000000000000017 grams. Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.