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04B Scientific Notation

The document is a worksheet focused on scientific notation, including warm-up arithmetic problems, rewriting numbers in scientific notation, converting between scientific and normal notation, and understanding metric prefixes. It provides examples and practice problems for students to learn how to express large and small numbers using powers of ten. The document emphasizes the importance of scientific notation in scientific calculations and measurements.

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liuycivan
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25 views2 pages

04B Scientific Notation

The document is a worksheet focused on scientific notation, including warm-up arithmetic problems, rewriting numbers in scientific notation, converting between scientific and normal notation, and understanding metric prefixes. It provides examples and practice problems for students to learn how to express large and small numbers using powers of ten. The document emphasizes the importance of scientific notation in scientific calculations and measurements.

Uploaded by

liuycivan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Scientific Notation Name: _______________________

I. WARMUP – solve each arithmetic problem.


Date: ___________ Period: _____

5+2 = __________ 5 x 10 = __________ 5.0 x 10 = __________

5–2 = __________ 50 x 10 = __________ 5.2 x 10 = __________

-5 + 2 = __________ 50 ÷ 10 = __________ 5.0 ÷ 10 = __________

-5 – 2 = __________ 5 ÷ 10 = __________ 5.2 ÷10 = __________

II. REWRITING NUMBERS IN SCIENTIFIC NOTATION


We already learned how powers of ten can help us write large or small numbers. For example, the
number 100 can be written as 102. But what do we do if we want to write the number 200? The
solution is to simply break the number 200 into two parts: the “number” (2) and the “zeros” (100). This
means we can write the number 200 as 2 x 100 which, using powers of ten can be written as 2 x 102.
This method of writing numbers is called scientific notation.
𝑛
The general form for a number in scientific notation is: 𝐴×
is the “number” it must be greater than or equal to 1 and less than 10. ( )
is the “exponent” or the power of ten, it must be a whole number (positive or negative).

Scientific notation is useful for writing very large or very small numbers since the power of ten can take
the place of all those zeros. For practice, rewrite the measurements below in scientific notation.

(a) The mass of the Earth is: 5,980,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 kg.


STEP ONE: Determine by STEP TWO: Determine by STEP THREE: Write it all out.
Moving the decimal until the counting how many spaces If you are writing a small
number is between 1 and 10. the decimal was moved. number make negative.

𝐴= 𝑛=
×
(b) The radius of a proton is: 0.0000000000000012 m.
STEP ONE: Determine STEP TWO: Determine STEP THREE: Write it all out.

𝐴= 𝑛=
×
1. PRACTICE – Write each number in scientific notation.
300 = ____________ 0.012 = ____________ 602 = ____________

0.01 = ____________ 24,000 = ____________ 0.0209 = ____________

500,000 = ____________ 0.00061 = ____________ 0.0000404 = ____________

0.00009 = ____________ 3,600,000 = ____________ 97,096 = ____________

Fremont Physics ©Kepple 2012 Prelims – Page #5 8/18/12


III. REWRITING NUMBERS FROM SCIENTIFIC INTO NORMAL NOTATION
If a number is already written in scientific notation, it can be rewritten as a normal number by simply
moving the decimal place as many times as the exponent. Move the decimal to the right for positive
powers of ten (big numbers) and to the left for negative powers of ten (small numbers).
2. PRACTICE – Convert each number from scientific notation into normal notation.

7 x 103 = ____________ 5.7 x 104 = ____________ 9.81 x 105 = ____________

4 x 10-2 = ____________ 9.2 x 10-3 = ____________ 8.37 x 10-4 = ____________

8.07 x 103 = ____________ 7.06 x 10-5 = ____________ 3.04 x 108 = ____________

IV. SCIENTIFIC NOTATION AND POWERS OF TEN


When solving a physics problem you will often arrive at an answer that is written in terms of a power
of ten, but is not in scientific notation. For example: × . To change this into scientific notation,
adjust the leading number (the 54) until it is greater than or equal to 1 and less than 10, which is 5.4.
Now adjust the exponent of the 10 so that the overall value stays the same as it was originally. In this
case since the decimal was moved one place to the left, add 1 to the exponent. This gives: × ,
which has the same value as × (since they both equal 54,000).
3. PRACTICE – Convert each value into scientific notation.
−2 2
2× = __________ × = __________ 2 × = __________

−
× = __________ 2× = __________ × = __________

6 − −5
2 × = __________ × = __________ 2 × = __________

V. METRIC PREFIXES AND SCIENTIFIC NOTATION


One last thing scientists do to make writing numbers in scientific notation even easier is to use prefixes
to represent a power of ten (see below). If you want to write a number that uses a metric prefix in
scientific notation, simply replace the prefix with the power of ten. For example, 5 nanometers (5 nm)
can be written as 5 x 10-9 m. Notice that the x 10-9 takes the place of the nano. The prefix is part of the
number, you must include it! For example, 5 nm is not equal to 5 m, it is 0.000000005 m. If you forget
the prefix, you are writing a completely different number.

1018 1015 1012 109 106 103 10-3 10-6 10-9 10-12 10-15 10-18
exa peta tera giga mega kilo milli micro nano pico femto atto
E P T G M k m µ n p f a

7. PRACTICE – Change each measurement from prefix notation into scientific notation.

2 nm = _____________ 3 TJ = _____________ 5 mm/s = _____________

20 kN = _____________ 54 mA = _____________ 98 MHz = _____________

612 µs = _____________ 1.21 GW = _____________ 308 pF = _____________

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