Year 9: Scientific notation

Scientific notation is a way of writing very large or very small numbers in a simpler form.

What is Scientific Notation?

It’s a shorthand way of writing numbers that are too big or too small to be written easily in standard decimal form. It's based on powers of 10.

How to Write Numbers in Scientific Notation

1. Large Numbers: Move the decimal point to the right until you have a number between 1 and 10. Write the number of places you moved the decimal point as a positive power of 10.
   Example: 3400000 = 3.4 x 10⁶
2. Small Numbers: Move the decimal point to the left until you have a number between 1 and 10. Write the number of places you moved the decimal point as a negative power of 10.
   Example: 0.0000045 = 4.5 x 10^-6

Examples

• 123456789 = 1.23456789 x 10⁸
• 0.00000008 = 8.0 x 10^-8

Remember: The number before the ‘x’ (the base) is always between 1 and 10. The power of 10 tells you how many places you moved the decimal point.