Guides ยท Science
Scientific Notation Basics
Express big and small numbers
Scientific notation writes numbers as mantissa times powers of ten, simplifying calculations and comparisons across scales.
- mantissa
- exponent
- powers of ten
- significant figures
- scaling
Write Form
Express as a.b ? 10^n with one nonzero digit left of decimal.
Operate
Add by matching exponents; multiply/divide by adding/subtracting exponents.
Check Sig Figs
Keep appropriate significant figures for context.