Very large and very small numbers are expressed in scientific notation
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Scientific notation or standard form
A useful way of writing large or small numbers instead of having to write alot of zeros. Example- 5,000= 5 x 1,000= 10 to the 3rd power :)
The main reason for using scientific notation is to express extremely large or small numbers more conveniently. It allows us to represent these numbers in a concise and standardized way, by using a power of 10. This makes it easier to communicate and work with very large or small values in various scientific and mathematical fields.
It can simplify writing very large numbers. For example, a googol, which is 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (and there may be a mistake there!) can be written ever so simply as 1*10^100.A googol maybe a curiosity but there are physical constants such as Avogadro's number which is 6.022140857*10^23, or a light year, which is 9.4607*10^15 metres where it is easy to make a mistake in the number of zeros..
Multiply all terms by a number (usually a power of 10) large enough to turn all decimal numbers into whole numbers. For example, take .4x = .75x - 2; multiply everything by 100 (102) to get 40x = 75x - 200. Obviously, this method won't work with irrational decimals such as pi.