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Usually makes it easier to read and reduces the risk of error.

For example, consider the following:

  • The average distance from the earth to the sum is 149.6 million kilometres.
  • In space light travels at 300,000 km per second.

Given that Time = Distance/Speed, how long does light take to get from the sun to the earth?

You could try 149600000/300000 and hopefully not get into a tangle with the 0s.

Or you could go for

Distance = 149.6 million = 149.6*106 = 1.496*108 km

Speed = 300000 = 3*105 km s-1.

So time = 1.496*108 / 3*105 seconds = 1.496/3 * 103 = 4.99*102 seconds or 499 seconds.

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Q: What does expressing a number in scientific notation do?
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A method of expressing a quantity as a number multiplied by 10 to the appropiate power?

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What is a method of expressing of a quantity as a number multiplied by 10 to the appropriate power?

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What is a method of expressing a quantity as a number multiplied by 10 to the appropriate power?

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How do you express 0.0763 in scientific notation?

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What is the correct scientific notation for 62.605x10?

Explain why 62.605 x106 is not the correct scientific notation. What is the correct way of expressing this scientific notation. Your answer:


How do you express the result in large numbers?

Expressing the result of a very large number or even a very small number is what we call scientific notation.


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In general the numeric part should be between 1 and (almost but not quite) 10.


What are the advantages of expressing numbers in scientific notation?

The advantage of expressing numbers in scientific notation is that they are more compact.


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A method of expressing numbers in terms of a decimal number between 1 and 10 multiplied by a power of 10. The scientific notation for 10,492, for example, is 1.0492 × 104.


When is expressing using scientific notation useful?

When numbers are tremendously large or small.


How do you get a standard notation from a scientific notation?

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