scientific notation

American  

noun

1. a method for expressing a given quantity as a number having significant digits necessary for a specified degree of accuracy, multiplied by 10 to the appropriate power, as 1385.62 written as 1.386 × 10 3 .

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scientific notation Scientific  

1. A method of expressing numbers in terms of a decimal number between 1 and 10 multiplied by a power of 10. The scientific notation for 10,492, for example, is 1.0492 × 10 ⁴.

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Etymology

Origin of scientific notation

First recorded in 1960–65

Example Sentences

“Atto” is the scientific notation prefix that represents 10-18, which is a decimal point followed by 17 zeroes and a 1.

From Salon • Oct. 10, 2023

TRY IT : : 5.44 Write in scientific notation: ⓐ 48,300 ⓑ 0.0129.

From Textbooks • May 6, 2020

The number in the measurement can be represented in different ways, including decimal form and scientific notation.

From Textbooks • Feb. 14, 2019

In scientific notation, if you want to write a number such as 500,000,000, you express it as 5 × 108.

From Textbooks • Oct. 13, 2016

For very big or very small numbers, so-called scientific notation is often clearer and easier to work with than standard notation and I’ll therefore sometimes use it.

From "Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences" by John Allen Paulos