Question

What would be the value of expressing something like the national debt in scientific notation? What information would be lost in such a usage?

Answer 1

As of January 8, 2015, the U.S. is $18.1 trillion in debt. (Source: National Priorities Project)

1 Trillion 

= 1 Thousand Billion

= 1,000,000,000,000

= 10¹²

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U.S National debt currently stands at:

$ 18.1 x 10¹²

*What information would be lost? Well firstly the 0's. The 0's put the size of the number into perspective. The word "trillion" would also be taken out of the picture, once again altering the perspective of the number.

Personally I'd prefer to hear "18.1 Trillion Dollars". Sounds more interesting.