Question

How do you solve scientific notation

Answer 1

Scientific notation consists of a coefficient (here 5.14) multiplied by 10 raised to an exponent (here 5). To convert to a real number, start with the base and multiply by 5 tens like this: 5.14 × 10 × 10 × 10 × 10 × 10 = 514000.0. Multiplying by tens is easy: one simply moves the decimal point in the base (5.14) 5 places to the right, adding extra zeroes as needed.     

Convert from Real Number to Scientific Notation:     

Here we wish to write the number 0.000345 as a coefficient times 10 raised to an exponent. To convert to scientific notation, start by moving the decimal place in the number until you have a coefficient between 1 and 10; here it is 3.45. The number of places to the left that you had to move the decimal point is the exponent. Here, we had to move the decimal 4 places to the right, so the exponent is -4.