1. Scientific Notation Lesson 9-lab

2. What is scientific notation? It is a method that scientists use to express very large and very small numbers. We use exponents with a base of 10 to express place value.

3. Remember… 100 = 10 2 1,000 =10 3 10,000 =10 4 10,000,000 = 10 7 = 10 11 100,000,000,000

4. Strategy for Large Numbers Place a decimal point after the first digit. The nonzero part of the expression will be called the coefficient. The coefficient will always be between 1 and 10. Count the number of spaces it takes to get to the end of the number. That number of spaces will be the exponent for the base of 10.

5. Example – Write 93,000,000 in scientific notation. 9 3 0 0 0 0 0 0. 9.3 is the coefficient. It takes 7 spaces to get to the end. 9.3 x 10 7

6. Strategy for Small Numbers Place the decimal point after the first nonzero digit. The nonzero part will be the coefficient. Count the spaces between your new decimal point and the original one. The number of spaces you moved back will be your negative exponent.

7. Example – Write 0.0000023 in scientific notation. 0. 0 0 0 0 0 2 3. 2.3 is the coefficient. There are 6 spaces between the new decimal point and the old decimal. 2.3 x 10 -6 The negative exponent shows us that we are going left on the number line.

8. Homework Time!