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How do you find the scientific notation for a decimal?

1 Answer

Aug 19, 2014

Assuming you are talking about a number greater than 1, you would do this the same way you find the scientific notation for a positive integer.

The key is to respect the scientific notation formula $a \cdot 10^{n}$ $a * 10^n$ where $1 \leq a < 10$ $1 <= a < 10$

Let us take a decimal such as 645.789. To get a where $1 \leq a < 10$ $1 <= a < 10$ , we need to move the decimal place 2 spots to the left.

Which is the same as dividing by $10^{2} = 100$ $10^2 = 100$

So we have $6.4578 \cdot 10^{2}$ $6.4578 * 10^2$ as our scientific notation of 645.789.

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