Scientific Notation Made Easy: Convert Any Number in 5 Seconds
Move the decimal point, count the moves, that is your exponent. Here is the complete guide.
Scientific notation writes any number as a coefficient between 1 and 10 multiplied by a power of 10. To convert: move the decimal point until you have one non-zero digit before it, then count how many places you moved. Moved right = negative exponent (small number). Moved left = positive exponent (large number).
Examples
45,600,000 → move decimal 7 places left → 4.56 × 10⁷. 0.00032 → move decimal 4 places right → 3.2 × 10⁻⁴. 1,000 → 1.0 × 10³. 0.001 → 1.0 × 10⁻³.
Calculating With Scientific Notation
Multiplication: multiply coefficients, add exponents. (3 × 10⁴) × (2 × 10³) = 6 × 10⁷. Division: divide coefficients, subtract exponents. (8 × 10⁶) ÷ (4 × 10²) = 2 × 10⁴. Addition and subtraction: first make the exponents the same, then add or subtract the coefficients. (5 × 10³) + (3 × 10²) = (5 × 10³) + (0.3 × 10³) = 5.3 × 10³.