Scientific Tutor
Chem – Scientific Notation Part 2
Author: Andrew
What sections should I know before attempting to learn this section?
—> Exponents
How do we go from a non-scientific notation number to a scientific notation number?
What happens if we go in the reverse direction? Let’s take a non-scientific notation number and turn it into scientific notation.
VIDEO Scientific Notation Demonstrated Example 3: Convert this non-scientific notation number below into scientific notation.
0.00000000873
What is the first non-zero number we encounter as we go from left to right above?
Answer: 8
What are all the significant figures or numbers after and including 8?
Answer: 873
Where would a decimal point go to make those digits into a number between 1 and 10?
Answer: 8.73
How many places do we have to move our decimal from our original number to get 8.73?
Answer: 9
Therefore, what is the exponent on the 10?
Answer: 9
Is the exponent positive or negative?
Answer: Negative (because we started off with a small number)
What does the scientific notation look like?
COMPLETE ANSWER: 8.73 * 10-9
VIDEO Scientific Notation Demonstrated Example 4: Convert this non-scientific notation number below into scientific notation.
425000
What is the first non-zero number we encounter as we go from left to right above?
Answer: 4
What are all the significant figures or numbers after and including 4?
Answer: 425
Where would a decimal point go to make those digits into a number between 1 and 10?
Answer: 4.25
How many places do we have to move our decimal from our original number to get 4.25?
Answer: 5
Therefore, what is the exponent on the 10?
Answer: 5
Is the exponent positive or negative?
Answer: Positive (because we started off with a large number)
What does the scientific notation look like?
COMPLETE ANSWER: 4.25 * 105
PRACTICE PROBLEMS: Convert these numbers into scientific notation.
| 0.000713 | 7.13 * 10-4 |
| 98000 | 9.8 * 104 |
| 31.2 | 3.12 * 101 |
| 0.0000006508 | 6.508 * 10-7 |
Posted in Chemistry
