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It doesn't have to be. Often it is useful to use powers of 1000, using numbers such as 98 x 10-6 meters = 98 micrometers. Or write the same number as 0.098 x 10-3 meters = 0.098 millimeters. This is because SI prefixes usually are only defined for powers of 1000 (that is, the exponent is a multiple of 3).

However, having the "a" part between 1 and 10 (greater or equal to 1, less than 10) is considered the "normalized" form, and makes it easier to compare numbers in scientific notation, or to quickly visualize the order-of-magnitude. If you use normalized numbers, you know (for example) that 8 x 106 is more than a million but less than 10 million. You also know that 2 x 107 is more than 8 x 106 - simply because the exponent is greater for the first number.

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Q: If a number in scientific notation takes the form of a x 10b why does a have to be between 1 and 10?
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How does a standard notation number compare to a scientific notation number?

Scientific notation takes up much less space ! consider the number 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 - it's much easier to write it as 1018 and it takes up less space on the page !


How do you convert 0.4428 into scientific notation?

Since .4428 is to the ten thousandths place, and scientific notation only takes an integer, a decimal point and then the numbers after it, the scientific notation would be 4.428 * 10-1


Does scientific notation make numbers scientific?

Not as such! Scientific notation is instead a convenient way of working with very large or very small numbers. For example the earth has a mass of 5,974,200,000,000,000,000,000,000 kg. This is quite a difficult number to work with (it takes a long time to count all the zeros and find just how big a number it is!) In scientific notation it is written as 5.9742 × 1024 which is much more easy to work with!


What benefits to using scientific notation over decimal notation?

It saves space ! Writing the number one thousand million takes less space if you write it as 109 instead of 1,000,000,000


How do you use scientific notation for 10.03?

Scientific notation takes one digit before the decimal point and uses multiples of 10 to represent the rest of the digits. In this case, scientific notation is not really practical. The answer is 1.003 x 101


What does it mean for a number to be in scientific notation?

It's usually related to large numbers - For example... 1,000,000,000 in scientific notation is 109 - which as you can see takes up much less space.


How do put 231882 scientific notation?

Scientific notation is used because scientist got tired of writing a lot of zeros like the distance to a star. 2.31882 *10^5 is your answer but takes more ink!


What is the correct way to write 0.00120 in scientific notation?

Scientific notation consists of a number from 1-10, with the multiplication of 10 to the power of (x) for every spot that it takes for the decimal point to make the number 1-10. So to answer your question, 0.00120 in scientific notation would be 1.2 x1000. This is because the decimal point needed to be moved 3 spaces. So 10 times (x), in this 3, creates the formula 10 to the 3rd power. OR just write the number '1' down, and for every spot moved, add a 0. This is much easier (and not to mention FASTER) in my opinion.


How do you write scientific notation in four operation?

Scientific notation is a way of representing numbers, usually very large or very small, in the form a*10^b where 1 &acirc;&permil;&curren; |a| < 10 is a decimal number and b is an integer (negative or positive). a is called the mantissa and b is called the exponent. To convert a number to scientific notation: &Acirc;&middot; If the number has no decimal point, then add one at the end. &Acirc;&middot; Then move the decimal point to just after the first digit while counting the number of places you have moved it. &Acirc;&middot; The mantissa of the new number, formed after moving the decimal point is a. &Acirc;&middot; If the original number is negative, then so is a. &Acirc;&middot; The number of places to the left that the decimal point was moved is b. If it was moved to the right, then b is negative.Sorry, but the above procedure takes five operations.


How do you change 310 into scientific notation?

"310". There isn't much point in writing such a small number in exponential format, because it would take more keystrokes than typing the number. If we HAD to do it, we might write "3.1E2". As you can see, that takes 2 more keystrokes than just typing the number.


How do you write 0.70010 in scientific notation?

0.70010 in scientific notation is 7.001 x 10^-1


What are the 7 steps of scientific notation?

There are not seven steps unless you start counting steps like "pick up pen"! Three steps is all that it takes.