Why do mathematicians and scientists often use scientific notation?
In scientific notation, scientists generally pick the power of ten that is multiplied by a
number between 1 and 10, which makes larger (and smaller) numbers easier to write
and read because they take up less space.
For example, in the case of the average distance between Earth and Sun, 9.3 107
miles is mathematically much easier to work with than any larger or smaller exponent
numbers. The following are several examples of large and small numbers in powers of
ten notation similar to numbers used in scientific notation (note: numbers that are
extremely small in scientific notation will have negative exponents):
- 748,000 can be represented by 7.48 105
- 245 can be represented by 2.45 102
- 45,000 can be represented by 4.5 104
- 0.025 can be represented by 2.5 10 ^2
- 0.0036 can be represented by 3.6 10 ^3
- 0.0000409 can be represented by 4.09 10 ^5
- 0.0000000014 can be represented by 1.4 10 ^989
MATH BASICS
The distance between the Earth and the Sun is most easily expressed using powers of ten as 9.3 107. The
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