Scientific Notation

Warm Up

• List three things you saw today that you think is related to physics and explain why.

Speed SolvingIn the space provided on your

Cornell notes, solve the following questions as quick and accurately as you can. You have one minute.

1. 0.000006/0.032. 3500 x 600003. 7.1 x 0.0003

Speed Solving Answers

1. 0.00022. 2100000003. 0.00213

Was the speed solving easy or hard? What made it hard? What made it easy?

What is the scientific notation?

• In science, we often deal with very large or very small numbers, scientific notation is a way to write these numbers easily in decimal form– Often times, this means getting rid of all

the zeros in the number

How does the scientific notation work?

• Decimal: you should only have one number in front of the decimal point

• Exponent: this expresses how many zeros are in the number and can only be in whole numbers

•There are always two parts of the scientific notation

3.5 x 108

What does the scientific notation mean?

3.5 x 108

• The exponent is positive 8, which means you move the decimal point 8 places to the right

• In all the empty places you add zeros, so it becomes– 350000000

3.5 x 10-8

• The exponent is negative 8, which means you move the decimal point 8 places to the left

• In all the empty places you add zeros, so it becomes– 0.000000035

The decimal number is your starting point. You know how many places and which way to move the decimal point depending on the exponent.

How do you multiply and divide with scientific notation?• You can only multiply and divide when

all numbers involved are in scientific notation

• When you multiply, you multiply the decimals and add the exponents

• When you divide, you divide the decimals and subtract the exponents

Let’s see how this could have helped your speed solve…

1. 0.000006/0.03

2. 3500 x 60000

3. 7.1 x 0.0003

Can you add and subtract with scientific notation?

• Yes you can, but only if the two numbers have the same exponents

• We will not be practicing this in physics :)

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