1. Scientific Notation Number expressed as:
Product of a number between 1 and 10 AND a power of 10
5.63 x 104, meaning
5.63 x 10 x 10 x 10 x 10
or 5.63 x 10,000
or 56,300
ALWAYS have only ONE nonzero digit to the left of the decimal point
ONLY significant numbers are used in the first number
First number can be positive or negative
Power of 10 can be positive or negative 1

2. When to Use Scientific Notation
Astronomically Large Numbers
mass of planets, distance between stars, number of atoms
Infinitesimally Small Numbers
size of atoms, protons, electrons, distance between atoms
A number with “ambiguous” zeros
59,000 has two sig. figs.
5.9 x 104 2

3. Converting From Standard to Scientific Notation
Move decimal until it is behind the first sig fig
Power of 10 is the # of spaces the decimal moved
Decimal moves to the left, the exponent is positive
Decimal moves to the right, the exponent is negative
 x (decimal moves 2 spots left)
 x (decimal moves 4 spots right) 3

4. Online Resources Nice web page on metric system
Practice converting to scientific notation 4