1.4 Scientific Notation

A coefficient from 1 to less than 10 times a power of 10.

Core idea

Scientific notation writes a value as:

a × 10ⁿ, where 1 ≤ a < 10. [1, pp. 4–6]

Examples:

• 27 000 = 2.7 × 10⁴
• 0.00047 = 4.7 × 10⁻⁴

The exponent records the decimal movement needed to write the coefficient between 1 and 10.

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