High School Chemistry : Using Scientific Notation
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Example Question #11 : Using Scientific Notation
What is 
Numbers in scientific notation must be written with the first number 
How ever many decimal places that you have to move your number to the right the exponent is positive. If you have to move the decimal point to the left to get your number the exponent is negative.
The number is 
Example Question #11 : Scientific Notation And Significant Figures
How is 13,200 written in scientific notation?
None of these
Any time we write a number in scientific notation, we want to keep the same number of significant figures, but have the decimal end up where it was in the original number. For the number 13,200, we have 3 significant figures: 1,3, & 2. So right now what we have is 132; our next step is to insert a decimal somewhere on 132 that would turn it into a number between 1-10. We are left with 1.32 To get to 1.32, we have to move the nonexhistent decimal from the end of 13200 four places to the left. Anytime we move decimals to the left, the exponent in scientific notation gets larger.
Example Question #11 : Using Scientific Notation
Convert the given value to scientific notation.
Scientific notation is used to simplify exceptionally complex numbers and to quickly present the number of significant figures in a given value. The value is converted to an exponent form using base ten, such that only a single-digit term with any given number of decimal places is used to represent the significant figures of the given value. Non-significant zeroes can be omitted from the leading term, and represented only in the base ten exponent.
The given number has only one significant figure (
There are two non-significant zeroes, so our ten will be raised to the power of two.
Our final answer is
Example Question #11 : Scientific Notation And Significant Figures
Convert the given value to scientific notation.
Scientific notation is used to simplify exceptionally complex numbers and to quickly present the number of significant figures in a given value. The value is converted to an exponent form using base ten, such that only a single-digit term with any given number of decimal places is used to represent the significant figures of the given value. Non-significant zeroes can be omitted from the leading term, and represented only in the base ten exponent.
The given number has only one significant figure (
To generate the single-digit leading term the decimal must be placed after the 4. Then count the digits to the left of the decimal (moving from right to left, these are 
Our final answer is 
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