Scientific Notation Formula

Scientific Notation Formula

When a number is too large, then the scientific notation is used for expressing in shorthand with the use of powers of tens that is universal and easy to manage. The scientific calculator displays the result in the “SCI” mode.

The formula for scientific notation is written as:

\[\large a\times 10^{n}\]

Solved Example

a  being the mantissa (first digit of the given number) lying between 1 and 10. n  is an integer.

For example: 

\(\begin{array}{l}4\times 10^{7}\end{array} \)
\(\begin{array}{l}=4.0000000\end{array} \)
\(\begin{array}{l}=4,00,00,000\end{array} \)

The negative exponent yields a smaller number whereas the larger number yields a larger number.
For example:

\(\begin{array}{l}2\times 10^{-8}\end{array} \)
\(\begin{array}{l}=0.00000002\end{array} \)