Scientific Notation

Convert a number to scientific notation and back: 0.00052 = 5.2 · 10⁻⁴. Step-by-step solution.

What to find:

scientific notation of a number

ordinary form of a number

Enter a number such as 0.00052 or 3200000. The exponent n is an integer and can be negative.

Scientific notation writes a number as a · 10ⁿ, where 1 ≤ |a| < 10 and n is an integer. It is convenient for very large and very small numbers, for example in physics and chemistry.

How to convert

Put the decimal point after the first significant digit. The exponent n is the number of places the point moved: positive for a move to the left, negative for a move to the right.

Example. 3,200,000 = 3.2 · 10⁶; 0.00052 = 5.2 · 10⁻⁴.